OLD  PATHS  ANi 


OF 


1  IN  I  j : 


. 


LIBRARY 

UNiVERsrnr  OP 

CALIFORNIA 

SAN  DIEGO 


presented  to  the 
UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 
UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
SAN  DIEGO 

by 
Douglas  Warren 


By  KATHARINE  M.  ABBOTT 


Old  Paths  and  Legends  of 
New  England 

Massachusetts— Rhode  Island — New 

Hampshire. 

Octavo.      With  186  Illustrations  and  a  Route 

Map.     $3.50  net.     By  mail,  $3.75. 

Old  Paths  and  Legends  of 


the  New  England  Border 

Connecticut — Deerfield — Berkshire. 
Octavo.      With    Frontispiece   in    Color  and 
about  /<5j  other  Illustrations  (6  in  Color)  and 
a  Map.     $3.30  net.     By  mail, 


G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 

NEW  YORK  LONDON 


Fishing-Keel  at  Flat-Iron  Point,  Joppa. 


OLD  PATHS  AND  LEGENDS 

OF 

NEW  ENGLAND 


SAUNTERINGS  OYER  HISTORIC  ROADS   WITH 
GLIMPSES  OF  PICTURESQUE  FIELDS  AND 
OLD  HOMESTEADS  IN  MASSACHU- 
SETTS, RHODE  ISLAND,  AND 
NEW  HAMPSHIRE 


BY 

KATHARINE  M./ ABBOTT 


G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 

NEW    YORK   AND    LONDON 

Gbe  ftnfcfcerbocfeer  ipress 

1909 


COPYRIGHT,  1903 

BY 
KATHARINE  M.  ABBOTT 


Published,  September,  1903 

Reprinted,  December,  1903  ;  January,  1904  ;  January,  iq 
January,  1909 


TTbe  ftntcfterbocher  press,  View  t?orfe 


TO    THOSE 
WHO    LOVE     THE 
OLD    ASSOCIATIONS,    WHO 
DELIGHT    TO    STEAL    AWAY    FROM 
THESE    RESTLESS    DAYS    TO    THE    TRAN- 
QUILLITY   OF    EARLY    NEW    ENGLAND    LIFE 
AND     SIMPLICITY    OF     ANCIENT     HOMESTEADS,     TO 
THOSE    WHO    FAIN    WOULD    LISTEN    TO    THE 
STORY    OF    EACH    HILL,    VALLEY,    TREE 
AND    BROOK    OF     THE     OLD     BAY 
STATE,   THIS   LITTLE  BOOK 
IS   SYMPATHETICALLY 
INSCRIBED 


PREFACE 

ONCE  upon  a  time  it  might  have  been  said,  "  Who  knows 
an  American  town?"  The  world  had  been  introduced  to 
portions  of  our  beautiful  land — to  the  Hudson  by  Wash- 
ington Irving,  to  Lake  George  by  Cooper,  and  to  California 
by  Bret  Harte,  yet  countless  fascinating  byways  were  quite 
neglected.  Some  travellers  thought  we  were  too  young  to 
be  interesting ;  others  in  the  words  of  the  Old  Play  directed 
their  search  "to  farthest  Inde  in  quest  of  novelties,"  blink- 
ing owl-like  at  "ten  thousand  objects  of  int'rest  wonderful" 
before  their  very  thresholds,  and  even  the  most  indefatigable 
lovers  of  America  became  discouraged  by  difficulties  in  the 
way  of  travelling  almost  insurmountable.  The  American 
found  it  a  far  more  simple  affair  to  journey  with  the  im- 
mortals from  Loch  Katrine  to  Mont  Blanc,  than  to  follow 
the  course  of  Whittier's  Merrimack  with  its  sheaf  of  legends 
from  source  to  sea. 

To-day  we  have  changed  all  that :  new  modes  of  travel 
and  philanthropic  societies  for  the  promotion  of  good  roads 
have  so  successfully  battled  with  the  discomforts  of  long 
distances  that  our  history-loving  countryman,  with  his 
favorite  volume  in  his  pocket,  may  step  down  by  the  way- 
side from  the  wheel,  the  electric  car,  or  automobile,  and 
explore  some  little  stream  to  the  spot  where  the  grist-mill's 
wheel  turns  still,  and,  in  the  hand-made  nails  of  a  primitive 
garrison,  live  over  again,  as  it  were,  his  great-great-great- 
grandfather's experiences.  His  thrill  of  sympathy  with  the 
past  is  akin  to  that  which  comes  on  seeing  for  the  first  time 
under  the  warmth  of  an  Italian  sun,  rich  roses  smothering 
in  wild  luxuriance  the  balcony  on  which  Juliet  leans  in  one 


vi  Preface 

of  Verona's  delicately  tinted  palaces.  In  this  environment 
that  old  story,  no  one  knows  how  old,  appears  to  have 
happened  but  yesterday ;  and  thus  in  the  New  World,  with 
the  inspiration  of  visiting  the  scene  of  the  poet's  theme, 
has  come  about  a  revival  of  American  poets  and  American 
history. 

I  have  tried  to  bring  together  in  small  compass  and 
somewhat  consecutively,  from  widely  scattered  sources, 
legends  and  illuminating  chronicles  of  authors  and  travel- 
lers, things  of  which  I  myself  have  felt  the  want,  believing 
that  it  may  at  least  suggest  a  wider  investigation  of  such 
a  delightful  and  exhaustless  subject  as  old  New  England. 

My  pages  reveal  to  how  long  a  list  of  authors  I  am  in- 
debted, and  to  their  publishers  for  permission  to  include 
extracts  from  their  works,  especially  to  Messrs.  Houghton, 
Mifflin  &  Co.,  who  have  placed  on  our  shelves  many  volumes 
of  American  poetry  and  vivid  reminiscences  which  picture 
a  fast -fading  side  of  New  England  life.  I  wish  to  express 
gratitude  to  the  artists  who  have  lent  their  piquant  inter- 
pretations of  New  England's  charm  in  summer  and  winter, 
a  story  no  pen  alone  can  tell ;  to  historians  and  librarians,  to 
members  of  patriotic  societies,  and  to  many,  many  others 
who  have  graciously  offered  stores  of  home  traditions  out 
of  pure  love  of  their  own  countryside;  these  form  a  great 
brotherhood  in  harmony  with  the  patriot  creed  of  Felix  Gras : 

"I  love  my  village  more  than  thy  village, 
I  love  my  province  more  than  thy  province, 
I  love  France  above  all!" 

BELVIDERE,  LOWELL, 
May,  1903. 

K.  M.  A. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 
I 


BOSTON  (SHAWMUT,  TRI-MOUNTAINE),  1630 

CAMBRIDGE  (NEWTOWNE),  1630-1633          ....  41 

ARLINGTON  (WEST  CAMBRIDGE  OR  MENOTOMY),  1630-1807.  54 

LEXINGTON  (CAMBRIDGE  FARMS),  1640-1712  61 

BEDFORD,  1642-1729           .......  69 

CONCORD  (MUSQUETAQUID),  1635 74 

MEDFORD  (MISTICK),  1630 83 

WOBURN  (CHARLESTOWN  VILLAGE),  1630-1642           .         .  90 

WILMINGTON,  1642-1730.     TEWKSBURY,  1655-1734       .         .  95 

LOWELL,  1655-1826    ........  97 

DRACUT,  1664-1701     .                  105 

TYNGSBOROUGH,  1673-1809         .         .         .         .         .         .  in 

NASHUA,  1673-1853 114 

CHELMSFORD,  1653-1655     .         .         .         .         .         .         .  118 

BILLERICA,  1650-1655         .......  120 

LYNN  (SAUGUS),  1629 133 

SWAMPSCOTT,  1637-1852     .......  139 

MARBLEHEAD,  1629-1649    .......  142 

SALEM  (NAUMKEAG),  1626 150 

DANVERS  (SALEM  VILLAGE),  1628-1752      ....  165 

BEVERLY,  1628-1668            .......  170 

GLOUCESTER  (WYNGHERSHEEK),  1639-1873        .         .         .  175 

NORTH  ANDOVER,  1646-1855      ......  186 

ANDOVER,  1646 192 

METHUEN,  1645-1725 198 

HAVERHILL  (PENTUCKET),  1640-1645         ....  201 

BYFIELD  PARISH,  1702 210 

IPSWICH  (AGAWAM)  1634 215 

NEWBURYPORT,  1635-1764 225 

NEWBURY — OLDTOWN,  1634-1635 230 

AMESBURY,  1638-1668 237 

SALISBURY  (COLCHESTER),  1638-1640         .                  .         .  242 


viii  Contents 

PAGB 

HAMPTON  (WINNICUNNETT),  1638      .....  246 

EXETER  (SQUAMSCOT),  1638 253 

PORTSMOUTH  (STRAWBERRY  BANK),  1623-1633           .         .  259 

FRAMINGHAM  (DANFORTH'S  PLANTATION),  1675-1800         .  274 

SHREWSBURY  (1717-1727)           ......  275 

JAMAICA  PLAIN  (POND  PLAIN),  1633-1851-1873          .         .  277 

DEDHAM,  1635-1636 290 

MILTON  (UNQUITY-QUISSET),  1633-1662     ....  298 

QUINCY,  1633-1640-1792 315 

HULL  (NANTASCO),  1624-1644    ......  326 

COHASSET  (CONAHESSET),  1614-1717-1770         .         .         .  331 

HINGHAM  (BARE  COVE),  1633-1635    .         .         .                  .  338 

WEYMOUTH  (WESSAGUSSET),  1622-1635     ....  344 

BRAINTREE,  1633-1640       .......  352 

PLYMOUTH  (PATUXET),  1620       ......  359 

ABINGTON  (MARAMOOSKEAGIN),  1648-1712         .         .         .  368 

BRIDGEWATER  (NUNKETETEST),  1649-1656         .         .         .  370 

STOUGHTON  (PUNKAPOAG),  1650-1726         ....  379 

TAUNTON  (COHANNET),  1637-1639      .....  381 

EASTON,  1668-1725     ........  385 

SWANSEA  (WANAMOISET),  1645-1667           ....  394 

MlDDLEBOROUGH  (AsSAWAMPSET),   1669        ....  410 

NEW  BEDFORD  (ACUSHNET),  1664-1787      ....  420 

NEWPORT,  1638 439 

PROVIDENCE,  1636      ........  455 

INDEX                                                     0                 *        «>        .  465 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 


AN  IPSWICH  WAYSIDE Cover 

THE  MINUTE-MAN,  CONCORD Title-page 

Daniel  C.  French,  Sculpt. 

From  a  photograph  by  George  A.  Nelson. 
FISHING-REEL  AT  FLAT-IRON  POINT,  JOPPA       .        Frontispiece 

From  a  photograph  by  Baldwin  Coolidge. 

RICHARDSON'S  BROOK,  DRACUT xviii 

From  a  photograph  by  George  A.  Nelson. 

OLD  MIDDLESEX  AND  BOSTON  TOWN  i 

From  a  drawing  by  Mildred  Howells. 

LAFAYETTE         .........         4 

From  the  Huntington  Collection  in  the  Library  of  the  Metro- 
politan Museum  of  Art. 

BOSTON  COMMON  AS  SAMUEL  SEWALL  SAW  IT    .         .         .         5 
From  a  photograph  by  George  A.  Nelson. 

THE  GARDINER  GREENE  MANSION 7 

By  permission  from  The  Family  of  Greene. 

THE  KING  HOOPER  HOUSE,  DANVERS         ....  15 

THE  OLD  STATE  HOUSE,  BOSTON        .....  21 

From  a  photograph  by  Baldwin  Coolidge. 

CHRIST  CHURCH.     "THE  OLD  NORTH"       ....  29 

TREMONT  STREET  MALL,  BOSTON 33 

From  a  photograph  by  Charles  B.  Webster. 

COPLEY  SQUARE.  TRINITY  CHURCH  ....  35 
INNER  COURT  OF  THE  BOSTON  PUBLIC  LIBRARY  .  .  37 
THE  "NEW  CAMBRIDGE  BRIDGE" 39 

"OLD  MASSACHUSETTS"  IN  THE  YARD,  ERECTED  1720       .       43 
From  a  photograph  by  W.  B.  Swift. 

THE  HOME  OF  LONGFELLOW,  CAMBRIDGE  ...       49 

"ELMWOOD,"  THE  HOME  OF  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL        .       49 

From  photogravures  in  Under  Colonial  Roofs,  by  courtesy  of 
Charles  B.  Webster  and  Alvin  Lincoln  Jones. 

MEMORIAL  STATUE  OF  JOHN  HARVARD        .         .         .         .51 

From  a  photograph  by  Alice  E.  Manning. 
CHRIST  CHURCH,  CAMBRIDGE 53 


Illustrations 


PAGE 


THE  SAMUEL  BOWMAN-WHITTEMORE  HOUSE,  ARLINGTON  .       55 
From  a  photograph  by  F.  S.  Frost. 

PROCESSION  OF  BIRCHES,  MYSTIC  LAKE,  ARLINGTON  .       57 

From  a  photograph  by  F.  S.  Frost. 

THE  ROBBINS  MANSION,  ROBBINS  MEMORIAL  LIBRARY       .       59 
From  a  photograph  by  F.  S.  Frost. 

CAPTAIN  JOHN  PARKER  STATUE,  ON  LEXINGTON  COMMON  .       62 

A  GLEN  ON  THE  OLD  WOBURN  ROAD,  LEXINGTON      .         .       63 
From  a  photograph  by  B.  Eugene  Whitcher. 

THE  MUNROE  TAVERN,  LEXINGTON    .....       65 
From  a  photograph  by  Charles  B.  Webster. 

THE  BUCKMAN  TAVERN,  LEXINGTON  ....  67 

FIRST  PARISH  MEETING-HOUSE,  BEDFORD          ...  70 

A  FARM  LANE,  BEDFORD    .......  71 

From  a  photograph  by  Mrs.  C.  L.  Flint. 

THE  OLD  MANSE,  CONCORD         .         ...         .  75 

From  a  photograph  by  George  A.  Nelson. 

THE  OLD  NORTH  BRIDGE    .  77 

ORCHARD  HOUSE,  CONCORD        ......       79 

From  a  photograph  by  Henry  Troth. 

THE  HARTWELL  HOMESTEAD,  LINCOLN  81 

THE  ROYALL  MANSION-HOUSE   ......       84 

From  a  photogravure  in  Under  Colonial  Roofs. 

THE  CRADOCK  HOUSE,  MEDFORD 87 

From  a  photograph  by  George  W.  Hersey. 

ENTRANCE  TO  THE  BROOKS  ESTATE,  WINCHESTER      .         .  89 

THE  WOBURN  PUBLIC  LIBRARY 90 

THE  BALDWIN  HOMESTEAD,  NORTH  WOBURN    ...       93 
From  a  photograph  by  Baldwin  Coolidge. 

"A  PASTURE  MEADOW" 0 

From  a  photograph  by  George  W.  Hersey. 

ST.  ANNE'S  CHURCH,  LOWELL 100 

From  a  photograph  by  George  A.  Nelson. 

TYNG'S  ISLAND  ON  THE  MERRIMACK 102 

From  a  photograph  by  Alice  Saunders. 


Illustrations  xi 


PAGE 


THE  JONATHAN  TYLER  HOMESTEAD    ....  102 

From  a  photograph  by  Alice  Saunders. 

ICE-CUTTING  ON  THE  MERRIMACK,  LOWELL        .         .         .     104 

THE  REBECCA  WARREN-SMITH  HOMESTEAD        .         .         .     109 

From  a  photograph  by  Alice  E.  Manning. 

THE  ZADOC  ROGERS  MANSION,  LOWELL      ....     no 

LILACS  IN  TYNGSBOROUGH          .         .         .         .  .112 

From  a  photograph  by  George  A.  Nelson. 

THE  RUSTIC  POET  SOLILOQUIZES         .         .         .         .         .116 
From  a  photograph  by  George  A.  Nelson. 

THE  CLOISTER,  ALL  SAINTS'  CHURCH,  CHELMSFORD  .  .118 
A  WASTE-WAY  OF  THE  OLD  MIDDLESEX  CANAL,  BILLERICA  .  121 
THE  MANNING  HOMESTEAD,  BILLERICA  .  .  .  .122 
REVERE  BEACH  RESERVATION  .  .  .  .  .  .125 

COTTAGE  OF  GEORGE  H.  MIFFLIN,  ESQ.,  NAHANT.     .         .     127 
From  a  photograph  by  H.  de  Forrest  Smith. 

THE  NAHANT  LIFE-SAVING  CREW       .         .         .         .         .128 
From  a  photograph  by  Charles  B.  Webster. 

"SHE 's  FAST!     To  THE  RESCUE!" 129 

HEMLOCKS  IN  THE  FELLS  .......     132 

THE  SIMPLE  COBLER  OF  AGGAWAM 135 

From  a  photograph  by  George  A.  Nelson. 

GLEN  LEWIS  ROAD,  LYNN  WOODS 137 

A  BY-PATH,  LYNNFIELD 138 

From  a  photograph  by  F.  S.  Frost. 

OUR  FRIEND  THE  CAPTAIN 139 

SHORT  BEACH,  SWAMPSCOTT       ......  140 

"THE  STRANGE,  OLD-FASHIONED,  SILENT  TOWN"  .  .  141 
THE  OLIVER  HOUSE,  SMITH  POINT,  MARBLEHEAD,  AND 

CROWNINSHIELD  ESTATE  ON  PEACH'S  POINT    .         .  144 

MARBLEHEAD  HARBOR 146 

From  a  photograph  by  George  W.  Hersey. 


xii  Illustrations 


PAGE 


THE  CHURN,  MARBLEHEAD  NECK 148 

THE  ASSEMBLY  HALL,  SALEM     ......  152 

HALL  WITH  ANCIENT  STAIRCASE;  CABOT-ENDICOTT  HOUSE. 

RESIDENCE  OF  DANIEL  Low,  ESQ.  .         .         .  154 

THE  CHARTER  STREET  BURYING-GROUND,  SALEM        .         .  157 

LAST  OF  THE  MERCHANT-SHIPS  .         .         .         .         .         .  159 

JOHN  ANDREW  HOUSE,  WASHINGTON  SQUARE    .         .         .  161 

BIRTHPLACE  OF  HAWTHORNE      ......  163 

By  the  courtesy  of  O.  W.  Holmes  Upham. 

JUDGE  HOLTEN  HOMESTEAD,  DANVERS       ....  167 
THE  TURN  AT  THE  WILLOWS  TO  HOSPITAL  POINT  LIGHT, 

BEVERLY          ........  172 

A  PINE  PATH  TO  THE  SEA  .......  173 

From  a  photograph  by  F.  M.  Putnam. 

"WE  'RE    HERE!"      HOME    FROM    THE    GRAND    BANKS, 

GLOUCESTER    ........  177 

From  a  photograph  by  George  A.  Nelson. 

"BY  THE  SEA" — CAPE  ANN        ......  178 

THE  OLD  CUSTOM-HOUSE,  ANNISQUAM       ....  182 

AT  FOLLY  COVE,  CAPE  ANN 183 

From  a  photograph  by  Henry  Troth. 

THE  GOVERNOR  BRADSTREET  HOUSE,  NORTH  ANDOVER     .  188 
From  a  photograph  by  Charles  B.  Webster. 

THE  KITTREDGE  HOMESTEAD,  NORTH  ANDOVER          .         .  189 

ENTRANCE    OF    THE    SHAWSHINE    INTO    THE    MERRIMACK 

RIVER  AT  LAWRENCE       ......  194 

From  a  photograph  by  George  A.  Nelson. 

THE  HARRIET  BEECHER  STOWE  HOUSE,  ANDOVER     .         .  195 

THE  SOLDIERS'  AND  SAILORS'  MONUMENT,  METHUEN          .  199 

GREYCOURT  FROM  THE  LODGE    ......  200 

HANNAH  DUSTON  MONUMENT,  HAVERHILL         .         .         .  202 

CRYSTAL  SUNSHINE  IN  LOVERS'  LANE         ....  206 

From  a  photograph  by  G.  W.  W.  Bartlett. 


Illustrations  xiii 

PAGE 

THE    WHITTIER    KITCHEN    IN    WHITTIER'S    BIRTHPLACE, 

HAVERHILL 208 

By  courtesy  of  A.  A.  Ordway,  Esq. 

THE  GOVERNOR  DUMMER  MANSION,  SOUTH  BYFIELD  .         .     212 

PICKING  CINNAMON  ROSES  AT  THE  PEARL  HOMESTEAD, 

WEST  BOXFORD       .         .         .  .         .         .     217 

From  a  photograph  by  Arthur  N.  Wilmarth. 

"'AND  CURSON'S  BOWERY  MILL" 219 

INDIAN  HILL  FARM.     THE  POORE  HOMESTEAD  .         .         .     221 

"THE  OLD  CHAIN  BRIDGE"         ......     223 

From  a  photograph  by  Arthur  N.  Wilmarth. 

SPENCER-PlERCE    "GARRISON"     HOUSE,    NfiWBURY OLD- 
TOWN 226 

THE  CLAM-DIGGERS  ON  JOPPA  FLATS,  NEWBURYPORT         .     229 

FISHING-REEL  AT  FLAT-IRON  POINT,  JOPPA        .         .         -231 
From  a  photograph  by  Baldwin  Coolidge. 

SALISBURY  BEACH      ........     235 

ROCKS  BRIDGE  ACROSS  THE  MERRIMACK     ....     236 
From  a  photograph  by  W.  W.  Bartlett. 

THE  "FRIENDS"  MEETING-HOUSE,  AMESBURY  .         .         .     239 
From  a  photograph  by  Henry  Troth. 

THE    HOUSE    OF    HARRIET    PRESCOTT   SPOFFORD,  DEER 

ISLAND  ON  THE  MERRIMACK     .....     240 

THE  DORR  HOMESTEAD,  SALISBURY  POINT          .         .         .     241 
From  a  photograph  by  Arthur  N.  Wilmarth. 

GREAT  BOAR'S  HEAD,  HAMPTON  BEACH      ....     245 
THE  WELLS  HOMESTEAD,  "ELMFIELD,"  HAMPTON  FALLS, 

N.  H 249 

HAMPTON  MARSHES 251 

From  a  photograph  by  Arthur  M.  Dodge,  M.D. 

"THE  OLD  GARRISON,"  EXETER 253 

From  a  drawing  by  Sears  Gallagher. 

THE  APPLE-TREE 255 

From  a  photograph  by  George  A.  Nelson. 

THE  GOVERNOR  LANGDON  MANSION,  PORTSMOUTH     .         .     257 


xiv  Illustrations 


PAGE 


ST.  ANDREW'S  BY  THE  SEA,  RYE 260 

THE  WENTWORTH  MANSION,  PORTSMOUTH          .         .         .     261 
From  a  photograph  by  Charles  F.  Peck. 

THE  SIR  WILLIAM  PEPPERELL  HOUSE         ....     264 

From  a  photograph  by  Henry  Troth. 

OLD  DREW  GARRISON,  DOVER    ......     266 

From  a  photograph  by  L.  W.  Flanders,  M.D. 

THE  TORTUOUS,  HISTORIC  CHARLES 269 

From  a  photograph  by  Charles  B.  Webster. 

NORUMBEGA  TOWER 270 

HEMLOCK  GORGE,  NEWTON  UPPER  FALL    ....  273 

HOME  OF  MAJOR-GENERAL  ARTEMAS  WARD,  SHREWSBURY  .  276 

JAMAICA  PARK — VIEW  FROM  SOUTH  COVE  .         .         .     279 

From   the   Boston  Park   Guide,   by   courtesy  of   Sylvester 
Baxter. 

THE  MOSES  WILLIAMS  MANSION,  JAMAICA  PLAIN        .         .     282 
BROOK  FARM  MEADOW       .......     285 

THE  FAIRBANKS  HOMESTEAD,  DEDHAM       ....     293 
From  a  photograph  by  Baldwin  Coolidge. 

OLD  "NORFOLK  HOUSE,"  DEDHAM     .....     295 

THE  WILLOW  BY  THE  BROOK,  WESTWOOD  PARK         .         .     297 
From  a  photograph  by  Emma  L.  Baker. 

A  PLEACHED  ALLEY  IN  THE  "GOVERNOR'S  GARDEN"  .         .     299 

THE  VOSE  FARM,  BRUSH  HILL 303 

From  a  photograph  by  Margaret  Sutermeister. 

MADAM  BELCHER  HOUSE,  MILTON       .....     305 
THE  HOME  OF  THOMAS  BAILEY  ALDRICH,  PONKAPOG         .     307 

HOOSICWHISICK  LAKE,  MILTON 309 

From  a  photograph  by  F.  S.  Frost. 

THE  ROTCH  OBSERVATORY,  BLUE  HILL      .         .         .         .  311 
SHEPHERD  WITH  DOGS  AND  PIKE  ON  THE  ESTATE  OF  AU- 
GUSTUS HEMENWAY,  CANTON  .....  313 
JOHN  ROWE,  HIS  FIRE  BUCKET 314 

THE  QUINCY  GRANITE  QUARRIES 319 

From  a  photograph  by  George  A.  Nelson. 


Illustrations  xv 


PAGE 


BIRTHPLACE  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS         ....  321 
By  courtesy  of  the  Quincy  Historical  Society. 

THE  FIRST  CHURCH,  QUINCY      ......  324 

Low  TIDE — NANTASKET  BEACH  RESERVATION  .         .         -327 
From  a  photograph  by  George  W.  Hersey. 

U.  S.  FRIGATE  "CONSTITUTION"         .....  329 
From  a  painting  belonging  to  Benjamin  S.  Stevens,  Esq. 

MINOT  LIGHT     .........  331 

<( WHEN  THE  TIDE  COMES  IN"     ......  333 

HOMESTEAD  OF  MORDECAI  LINCOLN,  COHASSET  .         .         .  336 

ACCORD  POND 340 

From  a  photograph  by  H.  I.  O. 

THE  GUARDIAN  ELM,  SOUTH  HINGHAM       ....  341 

From  a  photograph  by  H.  I.  O. 

DERBY  ACADEMY  FROM  BROAD  BRIDGE       ....  342 

WILDER'S  POND,  HINGHAM          ......  343 

ARCHITECTURE  IN  WEYMOUTH  AND  BRAINTREE  .         .         .  347 

THREE  FAMOUS  ROCKS  OF  EASTERN  MASSACHUSETTS          .  349 

HUSKING — THE  FARMER'S  RAINY  DAY       .         .         .         .  351 
From  a  photograph  by  Marshall  P.  Crane. 

THE  MONATIQUOT  RIVER 354 

LITTLE  POND,  SOUTH  BRAINTREE 355 

From  a  photograph  by  Granville  Bowditch. 

THE  HOWLAND  HOUSE,  PLYMOUTH     .         .         .         .         .  358 

From  a  photograph  by  Halliday. 

BURIAL  HILL,  PLYMOUTH 361 

From  a  photograph  by  George  A.  Nelson. 

ONE  OF  PLYMOUTH'S  MERESTEADS 363 

THE  HOME  OF  MAJOR  JOHN  BRADFORD       ....  367 

DYER  HOMESTEAD,  WHITMAN     ......  368 

HOMESTEAD  OF  DR.  JABEZ  FULLER,  KINGSTON  (1778)       .  369 

THE  GENERAL  LAZELL  AND  JUDGE  MITCHELL  HOMESTEAD.  373 

MEMORIAL  LIBRARY,  BRIDGEWATER 375 

A  PLEASANT  PASTURE        . 376 

From  a  photograph  by  H.  W.  Benjamin. 


xvi  Illustrations 


PAGE 


THE  COLONIAL  CLUB  HOUSE 377 

INDIAN  WEAPONS       .         .         .         .         .  .      .         .         .     378 

From  a  drawing  by  George  H.  Hallowell. 

SABBATIA  LAKE,  TAUNTON          ......     381 

HISTORICAL    HALL    AND    MORTON    HOSPITAL,    HOME    OF 

GOVERNOR  MARCUS  MORTON    .....     383 

THE  GOVERNOR  OLIVER  AMES  HOUSE,  NORTH  EASTON       .  386 

From  a  photograph  by  Henry  Troth. 

THE  CORAM-SHOVE  HOUSE,  DIGHTON          ....  389 

ON  THE  BANKS  OF  COLE'S  RIVER 391 

A  SOMERSET  LANE  AND  A  SOMERSET  BROOK       .         .         .  393 

From  photographs  by  Cornelius  A.  Davis. 

YACHTING  ON  TAUNTON  RIVER  .....     393 

From  a  photograph  by  A.  H.  Skinner. 

JULY  ON  THE  RIVER  ........     394 

From  a  photograph  by  Daniel  W.  Gladding. 

THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH,  SWANSEA  CENTRE        .         .         .     397 
THE  TOWN  HALL,  SWANSEA       ......     399 

DERELICT  AT  SOUTH  SWANSEA   ......     400 

THE  KINGSLEY  LEAN-TO,  SOUTH  REHOBOTH       .         .         .     402 
From  a  photograph  by  J.  Gardner. 

THE  BAKER  HOMESTEAD,  SOUTH  REHOBOTH       .         .         .     403 

THREE-MILE  RIVER,  WESTVILLE         .....     405 
From  a  photograph  by  F.  M.  Atwood. 

OLD  WOODEN  BRIDGE,  TEN-MILE  RIVER    ....     407 
From  a  photograph  by  Daniel  W.  Gladding. 

THE  PRATT  HOMESTEAD,  PRATT  BROOK,  NORTH  MIDDLE- 
BOROUGH,  AND  LAKE  NIPPENICKET,  BRIDGEWATER  .  411 
THE  NELSON-WASHBURN  HOUSE,  LAKEVILLE     .         .         .  413 
THE  WILD  CARROT 415 

"I  HEARD,  OR  SEEMED  TO  HEAR,  THE  CHIDING  SEA"     .         .     417 
From  a  photograph  by  Edwin  Young  Judd. 

BOUNCING  BETS  IN  A  NANTUCKET  LANE    ....     423 
From  a  photograph  by  Henry  Troth. 


Illustrations  xvii 


PAGE 


THE  WHALER'S  STANCH  CAPTAIN  ON  SHORE       .         .         .     425 
From  a  photograph  by  Margaret  Sutermeister. 

FARMING  ON  THE  HEIGHTS  ABOVE  STONE  BRIDGE,  TIVER- 

TON          . 427 

From  photographs  by  F.  C.  Brownell. 

IN  MOUNT  HOPE  BAY 431 

VAUCLUSE,  THE  HOME  OF  SAMUEL  ELAM,  AND  WHITEHALL, 

THE  HOME  OF  DEAN  BERKELEY,  OLD  NEWPORT.         .     435 

From  photographs  by  Frank  H.  Child. 

THE  CLIFFS  AND  SURF  OFF  NEWPORT          ....     441 

''THE   ROCKS,"   SUMMER  RESIDENCE   OF   HENRY  CLEWS, 

ESQ.,  NEWPORT        .......     443 

"BEACON  ROCK,"  SUMMER  RESIDENCE  OF  EDWIN  D.  MOR- 
GAN, ESQ.,  BRENTON'S  COVE    .....     447 

THE  VANDERBILT  ARCH,  NEWPORT     .....     449 
From  a  photograph  by  George  A.  Nelson. 

OLD  TRINITY'S  SPIRE  .......     451 

AT  PLAY  ON  EASTON'S  BEACH    ......     454 

MOHEGAN  CLIFFS,  BLOCK  ISLAND        .....     457 
From  a  photograph  by  C.  E.  Cornwall. 

BENEVOLENT  STREET,  PROVIDENCE    .....     459 

SULLIVAN  DORR  MANSION 460 

From  a  photograph  by  Henry  A.  Church. 

THE  IVES  HOMESTEAD,  PROVIDENCE 461 

Residence  of  Mrs.  Henry  G.  Russell. 

ROGER  WILLIAMS  PARK 463 

TRAVELLER'S  MAP  OF  EASTERN  NEW  ENGLAND.   In  pocket  at  end. 


Richardson's  Brook,  Dracut. 

'And  don't  you  remember  the  school,  Ben  Bolt, 

With  the  master  so  cruel  and  grim, 
And  the  shaded  nook  in  the  running  brook, 
Where  the  children  went  to  swim  ?  " 


OLD  PATHS  AND  LEGENDS 
OF  NEW  ENGLAND 


BOSTON 

THE    MARSHALLING    OF    EVENTS    PRECEDING    LEXINGTON 

"  Where  are  you  going,  Lord  Lovell,"  she  said: 
"  Oh!   where  are  you  going  ?  "  said  she. 
"I'm  going,  my  Lady  Nancy  Belle, 

Strange  countries  for  1o  see,  to  see, 

Strange  countries  for  to  see.'1 

OLD  BALLAD. 


are  at  last  ar- 
rived in  Boston  and 
are  to  realize  your 
beautiful  dreams  of 
trips  over  the  old 
roads  of  Middlesex, 
Essex,  the  Old  Col- 
ony, and  even  to  the 
banks  of  the  Piscata- 
way,  climb  first  the 
cupola  of  the  State 
House,  whose  corner- 
stone was  laid  'by 
Samuel  Adams, — himself  a  corner-stone  of  our  indepen- 
dence,— assisted  by  the  Masonic  Grand  Master  Paul  Revere. 
Look  beyond  the  masts  of  tossing  ships  in  the  sun-kissed 
Harbor  to  the  bold  headland  of  Hull,  the  old  Nantascot, 


M 


2      Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

whose  grand  sands  possess  once  more  the  pristine  beauties 
enjoyed  by  the  Pilgrims.  There  is  The  Castle ;  ye  fforty- 
ficacion  of  ye  Port,  first  a  Puritan  stronghold;  second 
Castle  William,  a  bulwark  of  the  Province;  a  sometime 
prison  of  Sir  Edmund  Andros: — almost  had  he  succeeded 
in  making  his  escape,  disguised  as  a  woman,  had  not  a  mili- 
tary boot  belied  his  petticoats  as  he  attempted  to  pass  the 
outer  guard.  To  this  Royalist  fort  the  harassed  Governor 
Hutchinson  fled  from  his  beautiful  Milton  home,  seeking 
refuge  under  the  King's  colors. 

The  Castle  standard  underwent  many  vicissitudes :  Puri- 
tan abhorrence  of  the  Cross  of  St.  George  caused  the  flag 
constantly  to  disappear,  to  the  discomfiture  of  the  com- 
mander and  the  loyal  masters  of  ships;  Endicott  even 
dared,  for  conscience'  sake,  to  cut  out  the  cross.  When  Sir 
Henry  Vane  succeeded  Winthrop  as-  Governor  he  was 
forced  to  beg  the  use  of  a  ship's  flag  to  display  on  the 
Castle,  lest  the  sailors  carry  news  of  the  absence  of  the 
royal  standard  to  England  and  the  colonists  be  rated  as 
rebels.  Picture  the  royal  boy-Governor  of  twenty-four, 
the  dashing  young  nobleman  in  plumed  hat  and  courtly 
attire,  preceded  by  four  sergeants  with  halberds,  steel  caps, 
bandoleers,  and  small  arms,  leaving  his  house  at  the  head  of 
Queen  (Court)  Street  in  the  plain  little  town  of  Boston  to 
sit  under  the  bare  great  beams  of  the  First  Church.  Milton 
wrote  a  sonnet  to  this  brilliant  knight,  Harry  Vane,1  who 
became  the  leader  of  the  Republican  party  in  the  English 
Parliament,  suffered  imprisonment  through  his  rival  Crom- 
well, and  on  the  restoration  of  the  Stuarts  was  beheaded  for 
treason  by  Charles  II.,  though  not  a  Regicide: 

"  Vane  young  in  years,  but  in  sage  counsel  old 
Than  whom  a  better  Senator  ne'er  held 
The  helm  of  Rome." 

'A  magnificent  bronze  statue  of  Vane  by  Macmonnies  stands  in  the 
vestibule  of  the  Boston  Public  Library  ;  the  inscription  by  James 
Freeman  Clarke  being  a  most  interesting  presentation  of  his  character. 


Boston  Harbor  3 

After  the  Boston  Massacre,  the  citizens  forced  the  British 
soldiery  to  make  their  quarters  at  The  Castle,  crying  with 
Adams,  "Both  regiments  or  none  shall  go."  Captain  Pres- 
ton and  others  implicated  were  tried  before  Chief-Justice 
Lynde,  with  John  Adams  and  Josiah  Quincy,  the  patriots, 
and  Robert  Auchmuty  as  counsel  for  the  defence,  and  Robert 
Treat  Paine  for  the  prosecution.  Preston  and  all  others 
were  acquitted,  except  two  who  were  sentenced  to  be 
branded  on  the  hand.  On  the  evacuation  of  Boston,  the 
English  garrison  blew  up  the  magazine  of  The  Castle.  Colo- 
nel Leslie's  regiment  departed  without  ceremony.  Young 
Colonel  John  Trumbull,  just  out  of  Harvard,  acting  under 
Washington's  commission,  raised  the  flag  of  thirteen  stripes 
over  its  ruins,  and  new  bastions  were  constructed  under 
Lieutenant-Colonel  Paul  Revere.  Doubtless,  during  these 
lively  days  in  Boston  Harbor,  Trumbull  received  vivid  in- 
spiration for  his  future  memorial  paintings  of  the  Revolu- 
tionary War. 

In  1779  the  guns  of  Castle  Island  saluted  the  Marquis  de 
Lafayette  on  his  brig  Hermione,  as  he  passed  on  to  disem- 
bark at  Hancock's  wharf.  Received  with  enthusiasm  by 
Congress,  appointed  Major-General,  he  gained  the  friend- 
ship, more  precious  still,  of  the  great  Washington !  Finally, 
in  1779,  the  island  fortress  was  rechristened  Fort  Indepen- 
dence by  President  John  Adams.  Built  by  Governor  Dud- 
ley in  1634,  it  is  the  most  ancient  military  post  in  the  United 
States  continuously  occupied  for  defensive  purposes. 

Yesterday  as  you  steamed  up  Boston  Harbor  in  the  bril- 
liant early  light  of  a  June  morning,  a  bugle  sounded  the 
reveille;  you  saw  the  wonderfully  picturesque  and  interesting 
way  in  which  the  city  spires  and  buildings  rose  terrace-like 
toward  the  dominating  Golden  Dome  on  Beacon  Hill.  In 
like  manner  events  at  the  beginning  of  the  history  of  the 
old  Bay  State  group  themselves  about  Beacon  Hill,  the 
centre  of  the  Trimountain.  Long,  long  ago  on  its  topmost 


4      Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 


peak,  the  Beacon's  iron  skillet  blazed  with  ominous  fire  to 
warn  the  colonists  of  Indian  depredation  or  British  aggres- 
sion. General  Gage,  finding  a  tar-barrel  there,  momentarily 

expected  to    see   it 


The  American  cause  appeared  to  be  lost; 
Congress  assembled  despairing  ;  when  Lafayette, 
resolving  to  consecrate  to  this  sublime  cause  his 
fortune  and  his  sword,  equipped  a  frigate  and 
embarked  for  Charlestown. — Histoire  Moderne. 


fired  to  call  the 
troops  from  the 
ships  in  the  harbor. 
At  the  opening  of 
the  twentieth  cen- 
tury in  the  frosty 
midnight  air  the 
soft  miraculous  light 
of  the  State  House 
Dome  flashed  out  its 
evening  signal  of 
peace  and  prosper- 
ity, as  it  were  the 
unspoken  "All  's 
well!"  of  the  mod- 
ern town-watch,  or 
a  benediction  to  the 
multitude  assem- 
bled on  the  Com- 
mon led  by  the 
venerable  Edward 
Everett  Hale,  our 
captain  in  the  rev- 
erent searchings  for 
the  old  traditions.1 
With  a  long  blast, 
four  trumpeters  on 


the  Senate  balcony  answered  the  stroke  of  one  from  King's 

1  The  exercises  were  arranged  by  Edwin  D.  Mead,  President  of  the 
Twentieth  Century  Club. 


The  Puritan's  Beacon  Hill  5 

Chapel.  The  Handel  and  Haydn  Society  sang  the  prophetic 
hymn  written  by  Judge  Sewall  for  the  new-born  eighteenth 
century.  This  honest  Judge,  who  stood  up  in  the  Old  South 
to  acknowledge  his  mistaken  judgments  in  the  witchcraft 
cases,  would  have  found  the  curious  spells  cast  by  poor 


Boston  Common  as  Samuel  Sewall  saw  it. 

witches  far  less  amazing  than  this  instantaneous  magic  illu- 
mination of  the  great  city  and  its  suburbs  by  countless  lesser 
suns.  Through  Sewall's  Elm  Pasture,  his  estate  so-called, 
over  its  original  Coventry  and  Bishop-Stoke  streets  and 
across  the  Puritan's  Beacon  Hill  of  wild  rose  and  bayberry, 
swiftly  glides  to-day  the  odd  carriage  without  the  horse 


6      Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

toward  long  lines  of  great  houses  in  the  Back  Bay.  Here  in 
the  past  spread  water,  water  everywhere,  and  the  merchant 
rowed  across  to  Muddy  River  (Brookline)  to  inspect  swine 
and  other  cattle  which  were  kept  on  his  farm  in  the  summer 
whilst  the  corn  was  on  the  ground  in  Boston,  and  brought 
back  to  town  in  winter. 

In  spite  of  the  philosophy  of  Judge  Sewall  and  a  decided 
fondness  of  adventure  displayed  in  his  entertaining  Diary, 
I  fancy  he  would  demur  at  accompanying  us  over  his  favor- 
ite turnpikes  if,  instead  of  travelling  in  seventeenth-century 
style  on  his  good  horse  (without  the  carriage),  he  must  for- 
sooth first  descend  into  our  uncanny  subterranean  passage 
under  Boston  Common,  on  which  he  was  accustomed  to 
see  cows  grazing  and  witness  the  executions  of  Indians  and 
Quakers.1  How  Sewall  would  marvel  at  the  sensation  of 


1  That  cows  were  pastured  on  Boston  Common  as  late  as  1820  is  shown 
by  contemporaneous  illustration  on  a  rare  plate  of  Staffordshire  pottery 
in  the  collection  of  R.  T.  H.  Halsey  of  New  York.  This  plate — included 
among  the  exquisite  reproductions  in  blue  of  Mr.  Halsey's  volume,  Pic- 
tures of  Early  New  York  in  Dark  Blue  Staffordshire  Pottery — -depicts  the 
State  House,  and  the  Hancock  mansion,  which  entertained  Washington, 
Lafayette,  D'Estaing,  and  often  forty  French  officers,  so  that  in  despair  of 
provisions  Madame  Hancock  sent  her  cooks  out  to  milk  the  cows  on  the 
Common.  It  also  depicts  the  Mayor  John  Phillips's  house,  the  Dr.  John 
Joy,  Joseph  Coolidge,  Thomas  Perkins,  and  Thomas  Amory  houses.  The 
latter,  erected  1796,  stands, at  the  corner  of  Beacon  and  Park  streets.  It 
was  occupied  by  Governor  Christopher  Gore,  Fisher  Ames,  Malbone,  the 
miniature  painter,  Samuel  Dexter,  celebrated  lawyer,  and  George  Tick- 
nor,  scholar.  It  was  offered  in  1824  by  Mayor  Quincy  to  Lafayette  when 
the  nation's  guest.  On  this  visit  he  laid  the  corner-stone  of  Bunker  Hill 
Monument.  Below,  on  Park  Street,  facing  these  beautiful  elms,  its  north 
windows  overlooking  the  pensive  Granary  Burying-Ground.  is  the  Quincy 
mansion.  On  the  street  floor  is  a  book  room,  in  literary  welcome  after 
the  sentiment  of  the  agreeable  old-time  book-shop  of  the  Misses  Peabody 
in  West  Street.  The  Somerset  Club  House  in  Beacon  Street  was  the 
Sears  mansion,  and  Governor  Bowdoin's  house  near  the  corner  of  Bowdoin, 
was  occupied  by  General  Burgoyne,  and  the  Hancock  mansion  by  General 
Clinton. 


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8      Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

being  swiftly  propelled  up  into  the  sunlight  by  an  unseen 
force,  perhaps  as  far  as  Mystic  River,  to  knock  a,t  the  door 
of  the  familiar  Cradock  house  in  Medford,  or  across  Har- 
vard Bridge  to  search  for  some  feature  of  the  Harvard  Col- 
lege of  1668.  The  old  road  which  he  travelled  to  Cambridge 
was  by  Somerville  and  the  Cambridge  Woods,  through 
Kirkland  Street.  In  that  decade,  one  Sargeant  was  con- 
victed by  the  Harvard  Corporation  and  sentenced  "to  be 
publickly  whipped  before  all  the  scholars,  and  sit  alone  by 
himself  in  the  Hall  uncovered  at  meals  during  the  pleasure 
of  the  President  and  Fellows,  and  be  in  all  things  obedient 
or  else  be  finally  expelled  the  Colledge." 

In  the  summer  of  1630,  when  the  worthies  Governor 
Winthrop,  Coddington,  and  other  men  of  Lincolnshire  came 
to  the  Charles  River  from  Salem,  which  pleased  them  not  as 
a  site  for  the  capital,  William  Blaxton  the  recluse  stepped 
forth  from  his  solitary  hut  on  his  exclusive  peninsula  of 
Shawmutt  and  offered  them  the  hospitality  of  his  spring 
and  a  share  in  his  pasture  on  Boston  Common.  Whether 
he  offered  them  "  Blackstone  apples"  is  not  recorded,  but 
this  "man  of  a  particular  humour,"  soon  wearied  of  the 
Lords-Brethren,  as  Jie  had  of  the  Lords-Bishops  of  England, 
and  drove  his  cattle  to  far-distant  Rehoboth. 

In  the  State  House,  which  stands  in  Governor  Hancock's 
field,  you  must  see  the  charter  of  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony, 
brought  over  by  Winthrop  in  the  good  ship  Arbella,  named 
for  that  beautiful  Lady  Arbella,  of  whom  Mather  said,  "  she 
took  New  England  in  her  way  to  heaven."  Her  husband, 
Isaac  Johnson,  "a  holy  man  and  wise,"  held  so  large  an 
interest  in  the  New  England  adventure  that  he  selected  for 
his  lot  the  square  between  Tremont,  Washington,  Court,  and 
School  streets,  and  built  his  house  where  the  Old  Suffolk 
County  Court  House  stands.  Mr.  Johnson's  request  to  be 
buried  at  the  upper  end  of  his  lot  now  adjoining  King's 


The  Pioneers  9 

Chapel,   originated  the  first  burial-ground  of  the  Colony. 
(September,  1630.) 

Let  us  turn  over  the  leaves  of  Young's  Chronicles  of 
Massachusetts  and  Governor  Winthrop's  Diary,  and  follow 
the  pioneers  who  left  their  good  wives  with  Endicott  at 
Salem,  while  they  took  little  journeys  of  exploration  up  the 
Mystic  and  the  Charles  to  find  a  place  for  their  sitting  down. 
You  will  agree  that  the  letter  of  Deputy-Governor  Dudley 
to  The  Right  Honorable  my  very  good  Lady — the  Lady 
Bridget,  Countess  of  Lincoln — is  the  most  vivid  narrative 
of  all  these  quaint,  delightful,  brief  relations  of  early  ad- 
venture in  New  England's  plantation,  this  fascinating  lit- 
erature, half -autobiographical,  half-narrative,  of  Francis 
Higginson,  of  Richard  Mather,  Wood,  Hubbard,  Cotton,  and 
White.  Like  the  apostles  of  old,  each  chronicler  writes  the 
New- World  story  out  of  his  own  experience  and  in  the  sim- 
ple language  of  Pilgrim's  Progress.  These  were  leaders  of 
men,  guides  of  courageous  bands,  who  left  all  the  sacred 
grandeur,  beauty,  and  comforts  of  Old  England,  that  they 
might  freely  worship  God  in  cabins  and  garrets,  if  need  be^ 
in  face  of  the  gaunt  terrors  of  an  unsubdued  wilderness. 

Some  of  these  were  of  the  seaport  of  old  Boston,  by  the 
river  Witham  in  Lincolnshire,  a  city  of  merchants,  no  one 
knows  how  many  centuries  old.  The  legend  has  come 
down  to  us  of  the  derivation  of  the  name  "  Boston."  The 
harpers  sang  of  a  monastery,  St.  Botolph's  in  the  Fields, 
Botolph  being  the  patron  saint  of  mariners,  whose  name 
interpreted  in  good  Saxon  means  ' '  to  help  the  boat. ' '  Under 
the  tutelage  of  the  monks  after  a  time  little  hamlets  in- 
creased, and  the  graziers  of  the  country  round  about  became 
weary  of  directing  many  travellers  to  shelter  by  a  name  of 
such  length,  thus  they  spoke  quickly  the  long  title  and  "  St. 
Botolph's  in  the  Fields"  gradually  dwindled  into  Boston. 
The  men  of  this  maritime  town  dedicated  their  lovely  parish 


church  to  Saint  Botolph.  Its  corner-stone  was  laid  by 
Dame  Margaret  Tilney  in  1309,  and  as  a  fitting  tribute  to 
the  good  offices  of  their  patron,  they  built  the  finest  tower 
in  England,  and  hung  therein  a  lantern  as  a  guide  to  mari- 
ners at  a  great  distance.  This  venerable  pile,  where  Cotton 
preached,  was  resigned  by  Dudley,  Bellingham,  and  others 
who  desired,  above  all,  simplicity  in  worship. 

In  New  Boston  more  than  one  sober  Puritan  in  steeple- 
crowned  hat,  seated  on  the  wooden  settle  at  his  unadorned 
fireside,  told  the  story  of  the  Sabbath  of  his  boyhood  days 
to  his  grandchildren  as  an  admonition  that  all  vanity  may 
lure  the  unwary  into  sin. 

In  his  cocked  hat,  slashed  doublet,  and  silken  hose  he  had 
knelt  under  the  subdued  light  in  the  great  nave  of  St. 
Botolph' s,  where  fifty  windows  shed  forbidden  luxuries  of 
color  on  titled  heads;  where  twelve  carved  and  massive 
pillars  and  three  hundred  and  sixty-five  broad  steps  paved 
the  way  to  wicked  extravagance  of  life:  his  lady  mother 
instructed  him  that  these  steps  were  typical  of  the  weeks, 
months,  and  days  of  the  year,  the  flight  of  time  not  to  be 
wasted  in  slothfulness.  Others  say  that  the  twelve  pillars 
signify  the  twelve  apostles.  And  the  grandsire  especially 
loved  to  describe  its  lofty  tower,  the  wonder  of  travellers, 
and  to  repeat  the  saying  of  the  Puritans  that  St.  Botolph's  ' 
lantern  ceased  to  burn  when  its  vicar,  the  Rev.  John  Cot- 
ton, their  silver  trumpet,  their  Attic  Muse,  severed  the 
chains  of  custom  and  ordinance  and  sought  Boston,  the  new 
land,  that  he  might  preach  a  more  austere  life  unfettered  by 
the  decrees  of  Laud. 

1  A  chapel  in  St.  Botolph's  has  been  restored  and  a  monument  erected 
to  Cotton,  in  the  name  of  Cotton's  descendants  and  admirers,  by  Edward 
Everett.  His  address  at  Plymouth  contains  a  most  interesting  refer- 
ence to  these  links  between  old  and  new  Boston.  Boston  in  Lincoln- 
shire sent  us  her  charter  framed  in  the  wood  of  St.  Botolph's  Church, 
which  hangs  in  our  City  Hall. 


Master  Cotton  n 

Cotton  despised  not  the  day  of  small  things,  and  great 
was  the  flutter  and  perturbation  in  Boston  when  the  teacher 
of  the  First  Church  "  inveighed  loudly  from  the  pulpit 
against  wearing  of  lace  veils  over  the  face,  newly  the  mode,  as 
a  sinful  and  abominable  practice,  arguing  a  corrupt  heart." 
Governor  Endicott  defended  the  custom,  not  holding  the 
veil  to  be  a  snare  of  the  devil  as  did  Master  Cotton.  Never- 
theless, the  demure  Penelope  Pelham,  recently  arrived  from 
England  on  a  visit  to  her  brother,  Herbert  Pelham,  Treas- 
urer of  Harvard  College,  was  much  perturbed,  as  "  I  came 
hither  with  a  smart  new  veil  cast  over  my  Tiffany  hood." 
She  writes  in  her  Diary:  "Alack!  how  countless  are  the 
wiles  of  the  tempter!  Nothing  surely  seemeth  more  inno- 
cent than  this  film  of  network  which  marvellously  enhan- 
ceth  the  comeliness  of  an  indifferent  face!"  This  young 
gentlewoman,  Penelope  Pelham,1  as  Winthrop  relates  in  his 
History  of  Neu>  England,  became  the  wife  of  Richard  Belling- 
ham,  Governor. 

Much  more  grave  and  weighty  advice  had  the  worthy 
Cotton  given  to  the  colonists.  His  celebrated  Farewell  to 
Winthrop' s  Company  was  a  factor  in  the  immediate  pros- 
perity and  independence  of  the  settlements. 

Look  well  to  your  plantation,  said  he;  be  not  unmindful  of 
your  Jerusalem  at  home!  Neglect  not  walls  and  bulwarks 
and  fortifications  for  your  defence.  Go  forth,  every  man  that 
goeth,  with  a  public  spirit;  looking  not  on  your  own  things 
but  also  on  the  things  of  others. 

Sixthly  and  lastly.  Offend  not  the  poor  native,  but  as  you 
partake  in  their  land,  so  make  them  partakers  of  your  precious 
faith. 

Benjamin  Woodbridge,  the  first  graduate  of  Harvard, 
eulogizes  Cotton,  the  ripest  scholar  in  New  England,  as  a 
living,  breathing  Bible! 

1  Penelope's  Suitors,  by  Edwin  Lassetter  Bynner. 


12    Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

His  very  name  a  title-page;    and  next 
His  life  a  commentary  on  the  text; 
O!    What  a  monument  of  glorious  worth 
When  in  a  new  edition,  he  comes  forth 
Without  erratas,  may  we  think  he  '11  be 
In  leaves  and  covers  of  eternity! 

It  is  interesting  to  compare  this  eulogy  with  the  epitaph 
of  Benjamin  Franklin,  composed  by  himself. 

At  the  date  of  Dudley's  letter  to  the  Countess  of  Lincoln 
from  Boston,  March  12,  1630,  signed  "Your  Honor's  Old 
Thoughtful  Servant  T.  D.,"  the  Indians  have  been  carried 
off  by  a  pestilence,  some  believed  by  a  special  providence  to 
make  room  for  the  whites.  Dudley  has  made  acquaintance 
with  Chickatabut  upon  the  river  Neponset  near  to  the 
Massachusetts  Fields  by  the  Great  Blue  Hill,  also  with 
Sagamore  John  seated  upon  Mystic,  and  Sagamore  James 
upon  the  Saugus;  upon  the  Merrimack  dwelt  the  powerful 
Passaconaway,  "  esteemed  by  us  a  witch."  Dudley  passed 
lightly  over  the  settlements  begun  at  Wessagussett  (Wey- 
mouth),  at  Plymouth  and  Mount  Wollaston  (Quincy),  and  on 
the  Piscataway  at  Odiorne's  Point,  Little  Harbor,  Straw- 
berry Bank  (Portsmouth),  and  at  Dover  settled  by  the  Hil- 
tons,  and  relates  how 

the  Plantations  of  Boston  which  we  have  begun  fell  out. 

How  we  set  sail  from  Old  England  for  Salem  soon  after 
Winthrop's  letter  to  his  wife,  written  "from  aboard  the 
Arbella  riding  at  the  Cowes,  March  28,  1630,"-  —  in  these 
four  good  ships,  the  Arbella,  the  Talbot,  the  Ambrose,  and 
the  Jewel. 

"  The  good  ship  Arbella  is  leading  the  fleet, 
Away  to  the  westward,  through  rain-storm  and  sleet; 
The  white  cliffs  of  England  have  dropped  out  of  sight, 
As  birds  from  the  warmth  of  their  nests  taking  flight 
Into  wider  horizons;  each  fluttering  sail 
Follows  fast  where  the  Mayflower  flew  on  the  gale." 


Famine  at  the  Bay  13 

Some  were  sent  to  the  Bay  who  reported  a  good  place  upon 
Mistick  (Maiden),  but  some  others  of  us  found  a  place  that 
liked  us  better  three  leagues  up  Charles  River  (Newtowne  or 
Cambridge),  but  owing  to  sickness  "we  were  forced  to  change 
counsel  and  to  plant  dispersedly,"  some  at  Charlestown,  led 
by  Increase  Nowell,  William  Aspinwall,  and  Edward  Con- 
verse, first  ferryman  between  Boston  and  Charlestown,  and 
a  first  settler  of  Woburn,  and  some  on  the  south  side  of  the 
Charles  which  we  named  Boston ;  some  of  us  upon  Mistiok 
which  we  named  Medford;  some  of  us  four  miles  from 
Charlestown  came  to  a  place  well  watered,  and  settled  a 
plantation  and  called  it  Watertown,  under  Sir  Richard 
Saltonstall,  Knight,  and  the  Rev.  George  Phillips;  others 
of  us  two  miles  from  Boston,  which  we  named  Rocksbury, 
William  Pynchon  at  the  head;  others  upon  the  Saugus, 
Lynn;  and  the  western-men,  Ludlow,  Maverick,  and  Ros- 
siter  of  the  Mary  and  John,  at  Dorchester. 

Famine  then  seized  the  embryo  towns,  and  reduced  them 
to  a  diet  of  clams  and  ground-nuts ;  the  woful  day  arrived 
when  Governor  Winthrop  had  his  last  loaf  of  bread  in  the 
oven,  and  the  discouraged  people  were  about  to  gather  for 
fasting  and  prayer,  when  Mr.  Pierce's  ship,  long  believed  to 
have  been  captured  by  pirates,  was  sighted  returning  with 
provisions,  whereupon  the  day  of  fasting  was  changed  to  a 
thanksgiving  day  on  February  22,  1631. 

The  years  of  the  free  Puritan  commonwealth  in  sunny 
New  England  were  dark  with  shadows  of  a  stern,  constrain- 
ing scorn  of  all  gayety,  symbolized  by  sombre  gray  and 
brown  apparel.  It  is  said  that  even  to-day,  in  some  se- 
cluded villages,  a  bit  of  embroidery  or  bright  ribbon  is  the  oc- 
casion of  gossip  and  much  solemn  consultation  among  the 
elders.  Many  a  tale  is  told  of  pulpit  reproof,  of  "  speaking 
right  out  in  meeting."  Parson  Moody  of  York  compared  the 
proud  array  of  a  lady  entering  the  meeting-house  in  her 


14    Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

new-fashioned  hoop  to  the  rigging  of  a  ship  under  full  sail, 
which  would  eventually  sink  her  into  hell.  Hawthorne's 
enchanted  mirror  reflects  the  domestic  dramas  of  this 
gloomy  period.  On  holidays,  no  minstrel  nor  juggler  or 
Merry  Andrew,  with  which  their  fathers  had  made  merry 
in  Elizabeth's  England,  was  tolerated ;  the  wrestling  match 
was  the  uttermost  diversion  countenanced  by  the  town- 
beadle.  If  it  were  not  recorded  in  black  and  white,  one 
might  scarcely  credit  that  the  law  decreed  that  a  mother 
should  be  punished  for  kissing  her  child  on  the  Sabbath,  and 
that  undutiful  children  were  delivered  to  the  magistrates 
and  whipped  in  the  market-place.  Such  was  the  result  of 
an  undivided  church  and  state. 

The  strange  follies  enacted  during  the  sad  commotion  of 
the  witchcraft  delusion  naturally  brought  about  a  reaction, 
and  so  the  forced,  whimsical  side  of  Puritanism  faded.  With 
the  Province  Charter  granted  by  William  III.  came  the 
first  of  the  Royal  governors.  Despite  those  troublesome  re- 
gal representatives,  commerce  flourished  apace,  and  Boston 
became  the  wealthiest  seaport  of  the  colonies,  noted  for  a 
generous  hospitality.  Splendid  assemblies  were  given  at 
the  Province  House.1  The  merchants  of  Boston  and  sur- 
rounding parts  entertained  handsomely  at  their  country- 
seats  in  Milton,  Winthrop,"  Medford  and  Billerica,  Danvers 
and  Marblehead.  Many  a  seven-gabled  or  gambrel  roof 
covered  a  banquet-hall.  But  in  the  sixties  a  murmur  of 
remonstrance  arose  against  English  Parliamentary  regula- 
tions. The  people  would  no  longer  sun  themselves  tran- 
quilly in  village  dooryards.  At  town  -  meetings  protest 

1  The  Province  Charter  may  be  seen  at  the  State  House  ;  Province 
House,  a  mere  shell  of  its  former  glory,  stands  in  the  rear  of  shops  opposite 
the  head  of  Milk  Street  by  the  Old  South. 

s  Governor  Shirley  had  a  country-house  at  Point  Shirley,  Winthrop; 
Governor  Hutchinson  at  Milton;  Governor  Gage  at  Danvers. 


16    Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

followed  protest.  Then  came  the  unexpected.  A  private 
coat-of-arms  peculiar  to  the  Washington  family  alone,  com- 
posed of  stars  and  stripes,  combined  alongside  of  the  spread- 
eagle  heraldic  emblem  of  John  Milton,  poet,  Puritan,  and 
Republican,  had  taken  the  place  of  King  George's  banner. 

Opposite  King's  Chapel  stood  the  mansion  of  Andrew 
Faneuil,  and  to  those  country  people  who  were  moved  to 
enter  and  gaze  upon  a  Church  of  England  assembly,  which 
many  of  them  had  never  seen,  the  ecclesiastic  sight  must 
have  been  an  astonishing  one.  The  altar-piece  decorated 
with  green  boughs  and  flowers ;  the  strains  of  the  organ, — 
such  strains  always  the  pet  detestation  of  the  Puritans ;  its 
noble  organ,  given  by  Thomas  Brattle,  being  the  first  large 
one  erected  in  New  England;  the  fashionable  elegance  of 
the  ' '  loyalist ' '  gentry  as  they  with  courtly  grace  handed  in 
their  wives  and  daughters,  adorned  in  brocaded  satins,  wide 
hoops,  towering  head-gear  and  cobweb  laces,  to  sit  under  the 
armorial  bearings  of  the  King  and  the  Governors.  More 
strange,  perhaps,  was  his  Excellency's  pew  lined  with  china 
tiles,  its  windows  draped  in  crimson  damask. 

On  the  retirement  of  the  Royal  troops  the  rector  and  a 
number  of  prominent  Tory  parishioners  departed  for  Nova 
Scotia:  with  the  rector  disappeared  the  Church  registers, 
silver,  and  vestments;  the  crown  and  its  supporting  mitres 
was  hidden  in  a  garret;  the  name  of  the  building  became 
known  as  the  Stone  Chapel.  In  1789  the  Chapel  became 
the  First  Unitarian  Church  under  a  Mr.  Freeman  as  rector 
for  curious  reasons  interesting  to  the  church  antiquary.  A 
number  of  mural  tablets,  reminders  of  early  monarchical 
Boston,  yet  remain  on  its  walls:  the  Shirley  arms,  the 
really  fine  monument  to  William  Vassall,  and  the  tablets  to 
John  Lowell,  Charles  Apthorp,  Samuel  Appleton,  and 
others.  The  recent  one  to  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes,  from  the 
design  of  Mrs.  Henry  Whitman,  must  not  be  overlooked. 


The  Old  South  17 

Here  were  buried  Puritan  and  Royalist,  notably  Governor 
John  Winthrop,  his  son,  the  first  Governor  of  Connecticut, 
also  the  Rev.  John  Cotton,  Governor  Shirley,  and  Lady 
Andros.  Her  funeral  of  state  is  described  by  Judge  Sewall 
as  having  taken  place  between  five  and  six  in  the  after- 
noon. The  soldiers,  he  tells  us,  made  a  guard  down 
Prison  Lane  to  the  South  Meeting-house,  eight  lychins, 
that  is,  torches  or  links,  illuminating  the  cloudy  air. 
Drawn  by  six  horses,  the  body  was  then  borne  from  that 
church  to  the  "Old  Burying-Ground,"  to-day  adjoining 
King's  Chapel. 

On  the  cross-beam  of  the  Old  South  bell  hovered  the  dove 
with  its  brooding  note 

"Whatever  is  rung  on  that  noisy  bell, 
Chime  of  the  hour  or  funeral  knell, 
The  dove  in  the  belfry  must  hear  it  well." ' 

Contradictory  human  nature  became  sharply  pointed  in 
this  period  of  assimilation.  We  find  the  complaining  letters 
of  Edmund  Randolph  to  the  King  concerning  "these  poor 
people  and  their  demeanor  under  the  new  government." 
He  wrote  again:  "  May  it  please  your  Grace  we  resolved  not 
to  be  baffled  by  their  great  affronts,  though  they  called  our 
minister  Baal's  priest,  and  our  prayers  'leeks,  garlic  and 
trash,'  and  we  are  now  come  to  have  prayers  on  their  ex- 
change, the  town-house  was  too  '  strait.' '  This  was  indited 
before  the  efforts  of  Governor  Andros  against  the  common 
rights  of  the  "  Bostoneers,"  as  Randolph  called  them.  Tact- 
less Andros  did  not  even  hesitate  to  send  his  deputy  to  the 
very  doors  of  the  "  Old  South"  and  demand  the  keys  of  the 
edifice  for  the  convenience  of  the  Church  of  England. 
Whereupon  Judge  Sewall,  called  the  "Puritan  Pepys  "  by 

1  The  Belfry  Pigeon,  by  N.  P.  Willis. 


i8 

Henry  Cabot  Lodge,  waited  upon  his  Excellency,  strenuously 
objecting  to  giving  up  the  same,  especially  during  the  ac- 
customed hours  of  worship.1 

"Boston's  'Appeal  to  the  World'  declared  against  un- 
righteous taxes  and  'that  a  legal  meeting  in  the  Town  of 
Boston  is  an  assembly  where  a  noble  freedom  of  speech  is 
ever  expected  and  maintained,'  where  men  think  as  they 
please  and  speak  as  they  think."  ("A  man  ought  to  be 
proud  to  rule  such  a  people,"  said  a  Frenchman.  "  But  one 
does  not  rule  the  American  people,"  answered  Pierre  de 
Coubertin,  "  one  governs  it — if  it  be  quite  willing.")  "  Lib- 
erty, Property,  No  Stamps,"  swayed  the  branches  of  the 
Liberty  Tree. 

In  August,  1769,  John  Adams  dined  with  358  Sons  of 
Liberty  at  Robinson's  the  Sign  of  the  Liberty  Tree  2  in 
Dorchester.  He  writes,  "We  had  two  tables  laid  in  the 
open  field  by  the  barn  "  ;  and  in  1771  Adams  writes: 
"  Dined  at  Mr.  Hancock's  with  the  members  Warren, 
Church,  Cooper,  Mr.  Harrison  and  spent  the  whole  after- 
noon and  drank  green  tea, — from  Holland  I  hope  but  I  don't 
know." 

1  King's  Chapel — "Qxieen's  Chappell"  during  Queen  Anne's  reign — is 
almost  the  only  memorial  left  standing  of  this  dramatic  and  crucial 
Provincial  period  of  our  history.  It  is  doubly  interesting  because  its 
evolution  seems  to  parallel  the  bitter  controversial  era  betwixt  Puritan 
and  Episcopalian.  So  imperfect  were  the  notions  of  religious  freedom 
that  even  Charles  II.  was  forced  to  read  them  a  salutary  lesson  on  this 
subject.  Each  side  had  reason  to  grieve  over  the  other's  falling  away 
from  the  true  faith. 

9  Lafayette  said,  "The  world  should  never  forget  the  Liberty  Tree." 
It  stood  at  the  junction  of  Washington  (Orange) ,  Boylston  (Frog  Lane) , 
and  Essex  (Auchmuty's  Lane)  streets.  A  flag  raised  signalled  the  "  Sons  " 
to  Liberty  Hall  under  its  branches.  Bas-relief  memorial  placed  over  the 
spot  by  David  Sears.  In  1767,  from  the  Sign  of  the  White  Lamb  on 
Orange  Street,  the  first  stage-coach  ran  to  Providence.  It  became,  later, 
the  Adams  House,  so  named  from  the  father  of  "Oliver  Optic"  who  kept 
the  tavern. 


The  Boston  Massacre  19 

The  speeches  of  Otis  and  Adams  were  like  musket-shots. 
The  Boston  Gazette  and  the  Massachusetts  Spy  '  flung  Whig 
sentiments  broadcast.  In  the  Green  Dragon  Tavern,  Paul 
Revere  and  the  Sons  of  Liberty  swore  secrecy  at  every 
meeting.  The  citizens  of  Boston  could  scarcely  restrain 
their  anger  at  the  insults  heaped  by  the  British  soldiery 
derisively  playing  Yankee  Doodle  2 : 

"  Yankee  Doodle  came  to  town 

For  to  buy  a  firelock, 
We  will  tar  and  feather  him 

And  so  we  will  John  Hancock." 

What  an  excitement  there  was  throughout  Boston  over 
the  Massacre  on  King  (State)  Street  in  front  of  the  Town 
House,  the  "Lobster  Backs"  firing  from  Exchange  Place!3 
Faneuil  Hall 4  in  old  Dock  Square,  now  Merchants'  Row, 
could  not  hold  the  patriots  who  met  with  the  delegates 
from  the  town-meetings — these  little  republics,  the  bone 
and  sinew  of  the  great  republic.  Middlesex  County  led  in 
bold  plans  for  a  Provincial  Congress,  later  called  at  Concord. 

"  This  meeting  can  do  nothing  more  to  save  the  country," 
shouted  Samuel  Adams  in  the  Old  South  Meeting-house,5 

1  The  Massachusetts  Spy  is  the  ancestor  of  the  Worcester  Spy. 

8  It  is  said  that  our  Yankee  Doodle  is  a  parody  on  the  first  Yankee 
Doodle,  written  in  ridicule  of  Oliver  Cromwell  and  his  coming  to  Oxford 
on  a  small  horse  wearing  a  single  plume  which  the  Royalists  dubbed  a 
"macaroni." 

3  The  Crispus  Attucks  Monument  on  Boston  Common,  commemorating 
Boston  Massacre,  was  unveiled  1888:  John  Boyle  O'Reilly,  poet. 

4  During  the  siege  the  British  made  a  playhouse  of  Faneuil  Hall,  and  a 
riding-school  of  the  Old  South.      Governor  Hancock  gave    a  dinner  in 
honor  of  Lafayette  at  Faneuil  Hall  on  the  anniversary  of  the  Capitulation 
of  Yorktown,   October   19,    1784.      It  was  announced  by  thirteen  guns 
from  the  market-place.     Under  thirteen  arches  thirteen  patriotic  toasts 
were  given. 

5  The  Old  South  stands  on  Governor  Winthrop's  "Green"  or  garden, 
which  extended  from  Milk  Street  to  Spring  Lane. 


20    Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

the  "Sanctuary  of  Freedom,"  after  Governor  Hutchinson 
determined  that  the  vessels  laden  with  tea  should  not  re- 
pass  the  guns  of  The  Castle.  At  the  word,  the  war-whoop 
of  the  patriot  Mohawks  startled  these  Friends,  Brethren, 
Countrymen,  summoned  by  printed  broadsides  to  meet  in 
manly  opposition  to  the  Machinations  of  Tyranny,1  the 
Tea  Party,  in  Indian  war-paint  freshly  and  fervently  laid 
on  at  the  Hancock  Tavern  in  Corn  Court,"  were  off  down 
Milk  Street  to  Griffin's  Wharf  (Liverpool  Wharf).  One 
hundred  thousand  dollars'  worth  of  tea  were  mixed  with 
water,  the  Tories  wept  salt  tears,  and  joy-bells  were  rung 
throughout  the  colonies. 

"  Rally,  Mohawks!  bring  out  your  axes, 
And  tell  King  George  we  '11  pay  no  taxes 

On  his  foreign  tea ; 

His  threats  are  vain,  and  vain  to  think 
To  force  our  girls  and  wives  to  drink 

His  vile  Bohea." 
— Rallying  Song  at  the  Green  Dragon  Tavern. 

In  1774  the  Province  Charter  was  recalled;  Boston  went 
into  mourning,  as  her  ports  were  closed  waiting  the  King's 

1  Broadside  issued  November  29,  1773.  Life  of  Colonel  Paul  Revere,  by 
Elbridge  Henry  Goss.  Cupples  &  Schoenof,  publishers. 

''  The  Hancock  Tavern,  or  Brasier's  Inn,  where  the  patriots  disguised 
themselves,  is  the  oldest  hostelry  standing  in  Boston,  resembling  some- 
what the  old  English  Coffee-House.  Once  upon  a  time,  when  here  stood 
the  inn  of  Samuel  Cole — a  charter  member  of  the  Ancient  and  Honorable 
Artillery  Company — there  were  wide  grounds  and  a  fine  harbor  view, 
and  Governor  Harry  Vane  entertained  Miantonomo,  Sachem,  and  twenty 
Narragansett  warriors.  Now  one  approach  is  through  Change  Alley, 
and  into  a  narrower  one,  Indian  file,  off  State  Street  opposite  the  Ex- 
change Building,  or  south  from  Faneuil  Hall  through  Corn  Court.  In 
the  "Tea"  room  hangs  the  weather-beaten  Hancock  sign  which  swung 
for  fifty  years  or  more  on  a  high  post  in  the  court-yard.  Both  Talleyrand 
and  Louis  Philippe,  travelling  incognito  as  M.  D'Orleans,  were  guests  at 
the  Hancock  Tavern. 


•  n  if  sa  • 
ilia  ii  i 


7~fo  0/d  State  House.  Boston.  Ames  Building  on  site  of  estate  of 
Henry  Dunster,  first  president  of  Harvard.  View  up  Court  Street  or 
Prison  Lane  from  the  Old  Town  Pump  site. 

'  'T  is   a  gret  city  !  '    exclaimed    Goody   Surriage,  peering    over  the 
shoulders  of  Agnes  and  Mrs.  Shirley  from  the  Governor's  house." 


22     Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

pleasure;  her  wharves  once  filled  with  the  riches  of  the 
world  were  empty,  the  people  without  bread.  Paul  Revere 
was  sent  express  to  the  Southern  Colonies  with  printed 
copies  of  the  Boston  Port  Bill  engraved  with  a  crown,  skull 
and  cross-bones,  and  a  cap  of  Liberty.  General  Gage 
fortified  Boston  Neck.  The  patriots  held  "ludicrously 
scanty  stores  at  Worcester  and  Concord."  On  the  i8th  of 
April  Joseph  Warren  saw  the  preparations  of  the  British  to 
capture  these  supplies,  and  sent  for  Paul  Revere. 

"Just  as  the  moon  rose  over  the  bay  Paul  Revere  silently 
rowed  to  the  Charlestown  shore."  What  says  the  tower  of  the 
Old  North  Church?  Two  lights!  the  British  advance  by  sea! 
Hurrying  hoof-beats  echo  in  Medford's  silent  streets.  Peace- 
ful Middlesex  wakes  in  alarm.  The  regulars  are  coming!  To 
Lexington! 

Israel  Bissell  carried  the  watch-word  Lexington!  into  Con- 
necticut, and  Israel  Putnam  left  his  plough  for  Bunker  Hill. 
On  Bowling  Green  his  Royal  Majesty  shook  in  his  leaden 
shoes.  In  Richmond,  at  old  St.  John's,  the  Virginia  Con- 
vention applauded  the  burning  words  of  Patrick  Henry. 
In  South  Carolina  the  officers  threw  up  their  royal  commis- 
sions. Its  Provincial  Congress,  Henry  Laurens,  president, 
stood  ready  to  sacrifice  "the  whole  of  our  estates  "  for  liberty. 
Lexington!  was  proclaimed  at  Savannah,  Georgia  sending  aid 
to  Boston.  Ethan  Allen  and  the  Green  Mountain  Boys  at 
Ticonderoga  frustrated  the  British  plans.  King  George 
would  not  listen  to  the  protests  of  many  English  officers. 
Lord  Dartmouth's  dreams  of  conciliation  were  destroyed; 
and  at  the  moment  when  Richard  Carvel,  Cavalier,  gave 
the  toast  Lexington!  in  the  noble  halls  of  England,  Pilgrim, 
Puritan,  and  Cavalier  were  standing  shoulder  to  shoulder 
in  the  strife. 

In  King  (State)  Street  the  curtain  had  already  been 
drawn  on  scenes  leading  up  to  the  final  tragedy  of  war.  In 


The  Old  State  House  23 

the  Council  Chamber  of  the  Old  State  House  '  James  Otis  had 
flung  scorching  words  against  arbitrary  law, — specifically 
the  Writs  of  Assistance, — in  the  presence  of  Chief  Justice 
Hutchinson  and  his  associates  in  great  wigs  and  robes  of 
scarlet  cloth.2 

Looking  out  at  the  east  window  in  its  original  ancient 
frame — down  old  King  Street,  you  almost  hear  the  huz- 
zas of  the  crowd  below  on  the  i8th  of  July,  1776,  upon 
the  proclamation  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  from 
the  balcony.  At  these  demonstrations  the  Lion  and  the 
Unicorn  scowled,  and  the  little  bell  of  St.  Michael's  in 
Marblehead  proceeded  to  crack  its  sides  with  joy. 

From  another  balcony  at  the  British  Coffee-House  across 
the  way  the  officers  had  jeered  at  the  speeches  of  Warren, 
Hancock,  and  Otis,  and  in  this  tavern  Otis  received  the 
fatal  blow  to  his  reason.  The  favorite  tavern  of  the  patriots 
was  the  Bunch  of  Grapes  3  on  the  corner  of  Mackerel  Lane 
(Kilby  Street).  After  Sir  William  Howe  had  stolen  away 
from  the  Province  House  with  his  folded  tents,  and  Colonel 
Ebenezer  Learned  had  unbarred  the  gates  of  Boston  to  the 
Continental  troops,  a  dinner  was  set  here  before  General 
Washington  and  his  officers. 

At  an  earlier  date  this  side  of  the  Exchange  Building  was, 
in  common  parlance,  "Justice  Dummer's  Corner,"  and  the 
youngest  of  his  distinguished  sons  was  born  here.  Above, 

1  The  Old  State  House  stands  on  the  site  of  the  first  wooden  Town 
House  at  the  head  of  King  (State)  Street. 

2  Robert  Reid's  striking  conception  of  this  incisive  moment  is  portrayed 
over  the  grand  stairway  in  the  new  State  House. 

In  the  same  Council  Chamber  to-day  Thomas  Hutchinson  and  his  wife, 
by  Peale;  Col.  James  Otis,  by  Copley;  Stuart's  Samuel  Otis,  father  of 
Harrison  Gray  Otis,  and  James  Otis,  the  patriot,  by  Blackburn,  gaze 
amicably  at  each  other  from  gilded  frames — being  a  portion  of  the  treas- 
ures in  the  collection  of  the  Bostonian  Society. 

3  This  tavern's  name  is  still  perpetuated  in  the  places  of  refreshment  of 
the  Exchange  Building. 


24    Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

Elder  Thomas  Leverett's  estate  touched  Congress  Street, 
known  as  Leverett's  Lane.  Governor  Winthrop,  on  his  way  to 
the  Town  House  from  his  mansion  in  Spring  Lane,  passed 
through  a  part  of  Pudding  Lane  now  Devonshire  Street, 
which,  between  Water  and  Milk  streets,  was  Black  Jack 
Alley  or  Joileff's  Lane.  Here  adjoining  the  Governor's 
"Green"  was  the  dwelling  of  Anne  Hibbins,  a  cousin  of 
Governor  Bellingham,  "of  more  wit  than  her  neighbors," 
and  consequently  hanged  as  a  witch  on  the  Common.  In 
those  days  the  exemplary  citizen  walked  in  a  sort  of  strait- 
jacket  to  avoid  breaking  the  minor  canons  of  the  Blue  Laws. 
Strict  penance  was  exacted  should  one  fancy  to  stroll  about 
one's  own  estate  on  the  Sabbath  Day ;  walking  was  counten- 
anced only  in  the  strait  path  to  the  meeting-house  in  King 
Street,  and  before  its  door  the  victims  incarcerated  in  the 
stocks  and  pillory  for  non-attendance  on  exercise  served  as 
an  admonition  to  all.  As  the  town  grew  these  instruments 
were  placed  on  wheels  for  greater  convenience.  The  whip- 
ping-post was  used  as  late  as  1805.  The  Town  House  was 
the  centre  of  Colonial  Boston,  standing  about  midway  be- 
tween Frog  Lane  (Boylston  Street),  washed  by  salt  water 
at  the  South  End,  and  Copp's  or  Wind-Mill  Hill  at  the  North 
End,  with  Fore  and  Back  streets  (Salem  and  North)  on  the 
water-front.  You  must  quite  forget  these  sky-piercing 
buildings  about  our  Old  State  House,  and  perceive  only 
Boston's  Town  Pump  on  Old  Cornhill  (Washington  Street) , 
and  softly  steal  up  Prison  Lane  (Court  Street)  in  the  foot- 
steps of  the  past.  The  present-day  Court  House,  gowned  in 
sombre  gray,  recalls  the  prison  of  the  Colony  on  whose  site 
it  stands.  Above  the  street  clamor  you  fancy  that  you  hear 
the  clanging  of  an  iron-bound  door  behind  the  witches  or 
Captain  Kidd,  double-locked  with  two-pound  keys  by  some 
grim  jailer.  Methinks  he  perceives  not  the  blossoming 
rose-bush  visible  to  Hawthorne  beside  that  prison  portal. 


Pemberton  Hill  and  Faneuil  Hall  25 

In  1718,  Scollay  Square,  being  common  land,  was  set  apart 
by  the  General  Court  for  a  spinning  school,  and  the  young 
ladies  of  Boston  gathered  here  to  spin  wool  for  a  premium 
in  kerchiefs  and  stuff  gowns  made  by  their  own  hands. 

Pemberton  Hill  was  once  the  old  Cotton  estate,  on  which 
Governor  Endicott  built  his  mansion. 

In  later  years  the  passer-by  was  enchanted  by  the  lovely 
terraced  garden  of  Gardiner  Greene,1  where  peacocks 
flaunted  jewelled  tails  against  the  dark-green  box. 

"  And  where  the  marjoram  once  and  sage  and  rue 
And  balm  and  mint  and  curled-leaf  parsley  grew, 
And  double  marigolds  and  silver  thyme." 

Seated  in  the  rose-arbor  of  this  garden  long  since  displaced 
by  the  unromantic  and  learned  halls  of  barristers,  one  com- 
manded a  view  of  Boston  Harbor  beyond  the  crosstrees  of 
our  first  frigates,  and  perchance  caught  the  echo  of  ham- 
mers knocking  away  the  shores  and  spurs  from  Old  Iron- 
sides, launched  to  conquer  by  virtue  of  the  fifteen  Stars  and 
Stripes,  or  may  have  witnessed  the  splendid  military  dis- 
play of  the  Province  which  greeted  the  old  Massachusetts 
frigate  after  the  triumph  of  Louisbourg  as  she  proudly 
swung  to  at  Long  Wharf  with  the  Governor  and  Mrs. 
Shirley  on  board. 

Faneuil  Hall  was  planned  by  Smybert,  the  celebrated 
Scotch  painter,  and  surmounted  by  Deacon  Shem  Browne's 
unique  grasshopper  vane.  Here  Trumbull's  picture  of  the 

1  Pictures  of  this  garden  and  of  the  Greene  mansion,  presented  by  Mrs. 
James  S.  Amory  to  the  Bostonian  Society,  may  be  seen  at  the  Old  State 
House,  also  photographs  of  Franklin  Street  from  the  Crescent,  showing 
the  lovely  elm  parkway  and  the  Eldridge  and  Gardner  houses;  also  the 
old  Sears  estate  before  occupancy  by  the  Somerset  Club  on  Beacon  Street, 
the  Caleb  Loring  house,  Somerset  Street,  and  the  Samuel  May  house  on 
Congress  Street  (formerly  Atkinson  Street). 


26     Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

Declaration  of  Independence  was  visited  by  John  Adams. 
Miss  Quincy  relates  in  her  Memoirs  that  he  pointed  to  the 
door  next  Hancock's  chair,  saying,  "There  is  the  door  out 
of  which  Washington  rushed  when  I  first  alluded  to  him 
as  the  man  best  qualified  to  be  Commander-in-Chief  of  the 
American  Army." 

The  tide  flowed  over  Dock  Square  into  Brattle  Street,  and 
Boston  was  divided  at  times  into  two  islands.  People  were 
sometimes  caught  at  flood  tide  and  drowned  in  Haymar- 
ket  Square.  A  swing-bridge  gave  access  to  Merchants' 
Row.  In  the  Columbian  Centennial  of  1797  the  firm  of 
Thomas  and  John  Hancock  invited  "Country  Traders  and 
others"  to  No.  8  Merchants'  Row  "Where  they  shall  feel 
happy  to  supply  them  in  the  following  goods,  for  cash  or  ap- 
proved Notes."  A  curious  stock  indeed!  —  Madeira  wine, 
Holland's  Gin,  Swedes'  Iron,  Nails,  crown  and  bar  soap, 
dipped  candles,  chocolate,  Raven's  Duck  and  a  constant 
supply  of  Cushing's  much  approved  Anchors. 

Wending  your  way  from  Faneuil  Hall  toward  North 
Square,  the  early  Court  End  of  Boston,  you  turn  aside  from 
Hanover  Street  (formerly  Orange-Tree  Lane)  into  Marshall 
Street  to  see  the  Boston  Stone,  originally  a  paint-mill  of 
1700;  when  it  became  useless  as  a  grinder  a  canny  Scotch- 
man turned  it  upon  its  side  and  inscribed  on  it  "  Boston 
Stone,  1737,"  to  publish  his  cheese  and  ale  after  the  fashion 
of  his  ' '  auld  acquaintance, ' '  the  haberdasher,  by  the  sign  of 
the  London  Stone. 

On  Union  Street  the  famous  Green  Dragon  once  curled 
its  copper  tail  over  the  entrance  of  the  tavern  where  the 
mechanics  of  the  North  End  Caucus  with  Adams,  Warren, 
and  Hancock  as  leaders  hatched  patriotic  plots  to  circum- 
vent the  movements  of  General  Gage.  This  Caucus  first 
saw  the  light  at  the  sign  of  the  Two  Palaverers  in  Salutation 


Franklin  in  the  Old  North  End  27 

Street.  At  the  Green  Dragon  were  organized  the  St.  An- 
drew's Lodge  of  Freemasons  and  the  first  Grand  Lodge  in 
the  Province,  Joseph  Warren,  Master. 

Fancy  how  interesting  to  have  peeped  in  at  a  certain 
window  at  the  corner  of  Hanover  and  Union  streets  under 
the  sign  of  the  Blue  Ball,  signifying  that  Soap  and  Candles 
might  be  obtained  within  of  Josiah  Franklin,  tallow-chan- 
dler, and  to  have  seen  Benjamin,  his  youngest  son,  "  Father 
of  all  the  Yankees,"  '  filling  the  prosaic  dipping-moulds, 
and  "hankering  for  the  sea."  The  day's  work  over,  he 
would  scamper  off  to  fish  for  minnows  on  the  edge  of  the 
salt-marsh  bordering  the  Mill-Pond,  or  to  the  book-shop  to 
spend  his  last  penny  on  a  new  chap-book  or  volume  of  his 
favorite  Bunyan.  At  eight  years  he  went  to  the  celebrated 
Latin  School,  the  little  wooden  schoolhouse,  on  School 
Street,  near  the  Franklin  Statue  in  front  of  City  Hall.2 

Our  humble  printer  of  the  two-penny  roll,  the  genius  Poor 
Richard,  himself  the  epitome  of  his  trenchant  every-day 
wisdom,  was  pronounced  by  Lord  Chatham  "an  honor  to 
the  English  nation  and  human  nature."  Many  charming 
attentions  were  showered  upon  him  by  the  great  ladies  of 
Versailles  while  sojourning  in  France  as  minister  plenipo- 
tentiary of  the  Republic.  A  French  biography  relates  that 
Franklin  found  time  to  cultivate  the  mechanical  arts. 
Touched  by  the  goodness  of  the  Queen,  Marie  Antoinette, he 
constructed  for  this  amiable  princess  the  first  harmonica 
seen  in  France.  This  precious  instrument  is  a  part  of  the 
fine  cabinet  of  M.  Le  Breton.  Attacked  by  illness  in  his 
seventy-ninth  year,  and  wishing  to  die  in  his  own  country, 

1  Walking  through  the  British  Museum  the  connoisseur,  Mr.  Edward 
A.  Silsbee  of  Salem  overheard  Carlyle  soliloquizing  as  he  stood  before  the 
bust  of  Franklin:    "  Father  of  all  the  Yankees,  father  of  all  the  Yankees! " 

2  Master  Ezekiel  Cheever  and  Master  Lovell  were  well-known  peda- 
gogues, and  among  the  pupils  were  Governors  Hancock  and  Bowdoin, 
Lieutenant-Governor  Gushing,  and  Sir  William  Pepperell. 


28    Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

Franklin  was  carried  in  the  Queen's  litter  from  Passy  to 
Havre.  His  arrival  in  Philadelphia  was  the  first  of  the 
triumphs  of  which  one  finds  examples  in  these  States.  On 
his  death  Congress  ordered  mourning  throughout  the  Union, 
and  the  National  Assembly  of  France  went  into  mourning 
upon  the  motion  of  Mirabeau,  led  by  Mme.  de  la  Roche- 
foucauld and  La  Fayette. 

"  Sa  vertu,  son  courage  et  sa  simpliciie 
De  Sparte  on  retrace  le  caractere  Antique 
Et  cher  a  la  raison,  cher  "a  VHumanite 
II  eclaira  V Europe  et  sauva  I'Amerique." 

When  old  Mother  Goose  immortalized  the  wheelbarrow- 
wedding  journey  she  may  have  had  a  vision  of  odd,  crooked 
North  Street,  which  enters  North  Square  at  the  birthplace 
of  Paul  Revere.  North  Square  has  not  lost  entirely  the 
antique  setting  familiar  to  the  Mathers,  Holyokes,  and 
Clarks,  though  shorn  of  its  most  ornamental  landmarks. 
The  North  Church  stood  here  in  the  earnest,  sober  days 
of  the  Colony.  In  the  aftermath  of  courtly  magnifi- 
cence, great  houses  of  Boston's  merchants  were  erected 
here,  and  these  streets  were  for  the  most  part  merely  private 
lanes  leading  to  their  docks.  In  that  gay  half-century,  Moon 
Street,  Garden  Court  Street,  and  Bell  Alley  (Prince  Street) 
were  lined  at  the  "  wee  sma'  hours  "  with  chairs  and  coaches 
awaiting  a  charming  freight  of  coquetry  in  powder  and 
patches. 

To-day  what  a  strange  anachronism  have  we  here? 
Mr.  Muirhead  speaks  truly  of  America  as  "The  Land  of 
Contrasts ' ' ;  this  sombre  square  is  dashed  with  color  here 
and  there  by  a  green  kerchief  or  red  sash  belonging  to  the 
picturesque  group  of  Italian  men  smoking  leisure  hours 
away  as  if  in  a  Piazzetta  of  their  sunlit  land.  Under  our 
grayer  skies  they  lose  a  trifle  of  the  native  happy-go-lucky 


Christ  Church.  "  The  Old  Xorth,"  1723. 

High  up  in  the  steeple  of  an  old  church,  far  above  the  light  and 
-murmur  of  the  town,  and  far  below  the  flying  clouds  that  shadow  it, 
dwelt  the  Chimes  I  tell  of.      They  were  old  Chimes  trust  me. 
his  own  dear,  constant,  steady  friends  the  Chimes  began  to  ring  the  joy- 
peals  so  lustily,  so  merrily,  so  happily,  so  gaily.      .      .      . — -DICKENS. 

29 


30    Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

light-heartedness,  but  on  Sundays,  when  the  drones  are 
joined  by  the  women  in  gala  attire,  there  is  a  joyous  buzzing 
as  of  bees,  and  on  Shrove  Tuesday  the  square  gleams  white 
with  the  confetti  of  the  Roman  Carnival. 

Cooper  has  described  in  Lionel  Lincoln  the  ornate  Clark 
mansion  on  Garden  Court  Street  as  "Mrs.  Lechmere's" 
house  on  Tremont  Street.  The  Clark  escutcheon  of  three 
white  swans,  and  the  coats-of-arms  of  the  Saltonstalls  and 
other  Colonial  connections  were  emblazoned  on  panels  and 
on  the  tessellated  floor.  It  was  purchased  by  Sir  Charles 
Henry  Frankland,  Oliver  Cromwell's  great-grandson. 

The  garden  of  its  magnificent  rival,  the  Governor  Hutch- 
inson  house,  extended  back  to  Hanover  and  Fleet  streets. 
This  house,  where  the  busts  of  George  III.  and  his  queen 
were  reflected  in  beautiful  mirrors,  and  the  coronation  of 
George  II.  was  wrought  in  tapestry,  became  a  target  for  the 
mob,  compelling  Thomas  Hutchinson  to  flee  for  his  life  to 
Rev.  Samuel  Mather's  house  in  Moon  Street,  leaving  rare 
manuscripts  to  ruthless  destruction. 

A  few  short  months  passed,  and  North  Square  was  glitter- 
ing with  the  bayonets  of  scarlet-coated  grenadiers.  The 
beautiful  Tory,  Lady  Frankland,  had  reluctantly  retreated 
from  her  Hopkinton  home  guarded  by  six  British  outriders, 
and  returned  to  her  long-empty  town  house  for  protection. 
From  her  window  she  watched  the  siege  of  Charlestown. 
Erstwhile  her  thoughts  flew  backward  to  the  unique  for- 
tunes of  her  girlhood,  and  the  distant  rattle  of  musketry 
seemed  to  be  but  the  echoing  hoofs  of  Sir  Harry's  pony  as 
he  dashed  impatiently  up  the  broad  stairs  to  greet  sweet 
Agnes. 

A  short  distance  away  in  the  belfry  of  Christ  Church, 
with  its  storied  chime  of  bells,  the  "  Old  North, "  as  we  call 
it,  General  Gage  reconnoitred  the  Americans  at  Bunker 
Hill.  Again,  from  Copp's  Hill  Burying-Ground,  among  the 


Bunker  Hill  3* 

peaceful  graves  of  the  renowned  Mathers,  he  swept  the  field 
with  a  spy-glass  from  behind  his  howitzers.  Seeing  Colonel 
Prescott  walking  with  leisurely  inspection  on  the  parapet, 
inspiring  his  men  with  indifference  to  the  cannonade,  Gage 
inquired,  "Will  he  fight?"  "Yes,  sir,  he  is  an  old  soldier, 
and  will  fight  as  long  as  a  drop  of  blood  remains."  "The 
works  must  be  carried,"  answered  Gage  (Frothingham's 
Siege  of  Boston).  Later  the  Copp's  Hill  howitzers  set 
Charlestown  on  fire.  Countless  anxious  spectators,  amidst 
din  of  cannon,  watched  contending  armies  fighting  under  a 
dense  black  smoke,  the  sun  serene  over  all,  a  scene  most 
brilliant  and  most  frightful,  one  of  the  crises  of  the  Revolu- 
tionary drama  whose  far-reaching  significance  the  world  is 
just  now  beginning  to  comprehend.  Mrs.  Spofford  finds 
the  inclosure  at  Bunker  Hill  peculiarly  typical  of  our  na- 
tional characteristics,  inasmuch  as,  being  badly  beaten  there, 
we  built  a  monument  to  the  fact,  and  have  never  ceased 
boasting  thereof.  "That  rail-fence  stuffed  with  meadow- 
hay  was  not  merely  the  breastwork  of  Putnam  and  Prescott, 
it  was  the  first  redoubt  of  freedom." 

ART    AND    LETTERS    ON    TRIMOUNTAINE 

The  personality  of  Boston  is  felt  intensely  in  the  vicinity 
of  Beacon  Hill.  There  are  few  among  America's  "  Northern 
Pilgrims"  of  art  and  letters  who  have  not  lived  on  the 
ground  once  owned  by  Copley  between  the  Athenaeum '  and 
the  Charles,  or  been  entertained  in  these  storied  houses  of 
the  purple  panes  behind  the  "crisp  crocuses"  which  bloom 
in  the  little  front  yards  on  Mt.  Vernon,  Joy,  Chestnut, 
Pinckney,  and  Beacon  Streets,  and  walked  literally  or  in 

JThe  Boston  Athenaeum,  founded  by  the  members  of  the  Anthology 
Club  in  1806,  contains  priceless  Americana,  including  the  larger  part  of 
Washington's  private  library.  Stuart's  head  of  Washington  is  placed  in 
the  Museum  of  Fine  Arts.  The  New  England  Historic  Genealogical 


32    Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

spirit  with  the  "Autocrat"  over  the  "Long  Path"1  through 
the  Common. 

Beacon  Hill  was  the  home  of  Gilbert  Stuart,  Malbone, 
Parkman,  Josiah  Quincy,  Channing,  Richard  H.  Dana, 
Charles  Sumner,  Charles  Francis  Adams,  Cyrus  A.  Bartol, 
Edwin  Booth,  and  of  Ticknor  and  his  friend  Prescott,2  each 
throwing  light  over  untrodden  Spanish  fields,  the  latter 
blind,  yet  cheery,  sparkling,  and,  as  Mitchell  writes,  "show- 
ing the  culture,  aplomb,  fastidiousness,  and  all  the  reserves 
of  Beacon  Street."  Familiar  names  of  the  present  day  on 
Beacon  Hill  are  those  of  T.  B.  Aldrich,  Henry  Cabot  Lodge, 
Margaret  Deland,  Alice  Brown,  Abbie  Farwell  Brown,  and 
Mrs.  Henry  Whitman. 

The  home  of  James  T.  Fields,  author,  publisher,  and 
friend,  was  frequented  by  the  most  splendid  group  of  men- 
of -letters  America  has  ever  known,  and  royal  times  were 
those  at  the  early  morning  breakfasts,  where  sooner  or  later 
every  celebrated  stranger  coming  to  Boston  on  a  literary  or 
historical  errand  was  invited  to  partake  of  "the  simple 
feast"  and  oftentimes  of  the  witty  sayings  of  their  "Auto- 
crat" neighbor. 

On  visiting  the  Fieldses'  rare  home  of  letters  the  dominant 
note  is  ever  the  gracious  spirit  which  set  the  shy  youth, 
Howells,  quite  at  ease  over  his  novel  blueberry  cake  break- 
fast— an  unknown  luxury  in  the  West  at  the  time  of  his  first 

Society,  most  stimulating  to  research  in  local  history,  open  to  all  stu- 
dents, occupies  the  Solicitor-General  Daniel  Davis  house  (1805)  at  18 
Somerset  Street.  Next  door  is  the  birthplace  of  the  scientist,  Rear- 
Admiral  Charles  Davis. 

1  Joy  Street  to  Boylston  Street. 

2  Prescott  wrote  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  at  55  Beacon  Street      Holmes 
lived  in  later  years  at  296  Beacon,  previously  on  Charles  Street,  close  to 
the  old  Eye  and  Ear  Infirmary.      Motley  lived  at  7   Walnut;    Wendell 
Phillips  was  born  at  the  corner  of  Walnut  and  Beacon;    the  Harrison 
Gray  Otis  house  was  45  Beacon.     The  Nathan  Appleton  house,  home 
of  the  celebrated  wit,   Tom   Appleton,  is  39  Beacon.     Here  Longfellow 


Tremont  Street  Mali,  Boston,  "  in  misty,  moisty  weather."  Park 
Street  Church  on  "  Brimstone  Corner, "  erected  i8op  on  site  of  the  Old 
Granary,  where  corn  was  stored  for  the  poor  and  the  sails  of  "  Old  Iron- 
sides" made.  Opposite  the  Subway  entrance  is  Old  St.  Paul's. 


33 


34      Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

visit  to  Boston.  Howells  writes:  "I  found  here  the  same 
odor  and  air  of  books  such  as  I  fancied  might  belong  to  the 
literary  homes  of  London."1  One  regards  with  reverence 
the  portraits  of  the  authors  and  friends  of  priceless  Yester- 
days. On  the  walls  of  "The  Study"  are  rare  engravings 
of  Wordsworth  and  Carlyle,  inscribed  with  a  line  from  their 
pens.  A  note  from  the  Fountain  Inn  is  signed  "  J.  Addison." 
The  charmingly  frank  acknowledgment  of  Charles  Reade  dis- 
covers anew  to  us  the  not  unusual  experience  of  an  unher- 
alded prophet.  He  writes:  "In  my  own  country  I  have,  up 
to  the  present  time,  met  with  but  little  encouragement  to  go  on 
tearing  my  brains  out  and  putting  them  on  paper."  (Had  not 
Mr.  Fields  in  his  sanctum  at  the  Old  Corner  Bookstore  been 
our  trumpeter  of  good  things  through  the  Atlantic,  how 
much  would  have  been  lost  to  the  world  of  literature!)  In 
one  of  the  beautiful  rooms  overlooking  the  Charles  River 
Bay,  "where  Hawthorne  liked  to  sit  at  twilight  to  watch 
the  vessels  dropping  down  the  stream,"  Dickens  speaks  to 
us  through  Alexander's  brush.  This  sweet,  quaint  portrait 
of  Miss  Mitford  might  have  been  that  of  a  lady  of  Cranford. 
And  ah!  we  have  now  seen  perhaps  the  most  valuable 
autograph  in  the  world,  that  of  Filippo  Sydney,  signed  to  a 
money  draft  when  travelling  in  Italy. 

We  are  told  by  Mrs.  Fields  that  Dr.  Holmes  delighted  in 
the  legends  of  his  old  house  in  the  neighborhood  of  the 
Charles,  where  Washington  is  said  to  have  tarried  three 
nights,  and  Dr.  Bradshaw  to  have  stepped  from  the  door 
and  made  a  prayer  on  the  departure  of  the  troops.  In  the 
twilight  of  Holmes' s  life,  when  it  was  difficult  to  go  far 
away,  he  spent  many  sympathetic  hours  before  the  warm 
hearth  of  Aldrich  on  Mt.  Vernon  Street. 

wooed  and  won  Miss  Appleton.  Sumner's  home  was  at  120  Hancock 
Street,  George  Milliard's  at  54  Pinckney.  Here  Hawthorne  was  mar- 
ried to  Sophia  Peabody  by  James  Freeman  Clarke.  Louisa  Alcott  lived 
in  Louisburg  Square. 

1  Literary  Friends  and  Acquaintance,  by  William  Dean  Howells. 


Old-Time  Dinners  in  Boston 


35 


As  we  know,  the  event  of  Howells's  visit  was  the  "rap- 
turous" little  dinner  made  for  him  by  James  Russell  Lowell 
with  Dr.  Holmes  and  Fields  at  the  Parker  House,  which  by 
a  coincidence  stands  on  the  site  of  the  brick  mansion  and 


Copley  Square.     Trinity  Church.     Built  iS'j'j.     Organized  1728.     Rich- 
ardson, architect.     Institute  of  Technology.     Spire  of  Arlington 
Street  Church,  Organized  1727. 

garden  of  Jacob  Wendell,  the  great-grandfather  of  Holmes. 
At  the  brilliant  dinner  given  here  by  Dickens,  after  the 
humorous  "Great  International  Walking-Match"  over  the 
mill-dam  to  Newton,  the  contestants  being  Mr.  Fields  and 
himself,  "  eloquence  was  voted  a  bore,  as  David  Copperfield, 
Hyperion,  Hosea  Bigelow,  the  Autocrat,  and  the  Bad  Boy 
were  present,  and  there  was  no  need  of  set  speeches."  * 

1  Yesterdays  with  Authors,  by  James  T.  Fields. 


36    Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

The  Jacobins'  Club  held  its  feast  of  wit  at  the  old  Tre- 
mont  House,  with  Ripley,  Charming,  Theodore  Parker, 
Alcott,  and  Peabody  among  the  members.  A  dinner,  the 
forerunner  of  the  unceremonious  Saturday  Club  of  good 
talkers,  at  which  was  broached  the  project  of  publishing 
the  Atlantic  Monthly,  was  given  by  Moses  Dresser  Phillips 
in  1857.  At  the  head  of  the  Saturday  Club's  table  during 
its  prime  presided  successively  Agassiz,  Longfellow,  Emer- 
son, Lowell,  and  Dr.  Holmes.1 

Summer  Street,  the  home  of  Daniel  Webster,  was,  in  1636, 
ye  Mylne  Street,  the  grass-bordered  road  to  the  grist-mill. 
Hereabouts  were  the  farms  and  gardens  of  many  of  the  "  F. 
F.  B.'s":  the  Russells,  Coffins,  Prebles,  and  Geyers.  On 
Pearl  Street  stretched  the  rope- walk  of  the  celebrated  Gray 
family,  Harrison  Gray  being  the  treasurer  of  the  province 
and  a  neighbor  of  the  Lowells,  Mascarenes,  and  Boutineaus, 
all  Royalists  dwelling  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Province  House.2 
The  spacious  barn  of  the  opulent  Tory,  John  Prince,  on 
Pearl  Street,  as  the  studio  of  Washington  Allston,  held 
Belshazzar's  Feast,  now  in  the  Museum  of  Fine  Arts.  The 
Theophilus  Parsons  house  was  close  by,  and  next  door  lived 
Thomas  Handasyd  Perkins,  admired  by  Webster,  and  a 
benefactor  of  the  blind  and  of  the  Athenaeum.  Colonel  Per- 
kins was  succeeded  in  the  presidency  of  the  Boston  Branch 
of  the  United  States  Bank  by  the  Hon.  George  Cabot,  leader 
of  the  Federalists,  and  of  whom  Aaron  Burr  said  "he  never 
spoke  but  light  followed  him  " ;  he  lived  in  Bumstead  Place. 
Temple  Place  was  then  Turnagaine  Alley,  having  no  outlet 
into  Washington  Street. 

One  may  seek  out  many  literary  homes  in  and  about 
Boston,  those  of  Mrs.  Julia  Ward  Howe,  Mrs.  Louise  Chand- 

1 A  sketch  of  the  Phillips  dinner  and  Dr.  Holmes's  list  of  members  is 
included  in  James  Russell  Lowell  and  His  Friends,  by  Edward  Everett 
Hale. 

2  Old  Landmarks  and  Historic  Personages  of  Boston,  by  Samuel  Adams 
Drake. 


Copley  Square 


37 


ler  Moulton,  Mrs.  Kate  Gannett  Wells,  Arlo  Bates,  Robert 
Grant,  Bliss  Perry,  Thomas  Wentworth  Higginson,  Joseph 
H.  Rhodes,  Albert  Bushnell  Hart,  Eliza  Orne  White,  Caro- 
line Hazard,  Nathan  Haskell  Dole,  Mrs.  Abby  Morton 


Inner  Court  of  the  Boston  Public  Library. 

Diaz;  among  the  poets  are  Louise  Imogen  Guiney,  Kath- 
arine E.  Con  way,  Charles  Follen  Adams,  and  Josephine 
Preston  Peabody. 

COPLEY    SQUARE 

Closely  allied  in  historic  and  literary  associations  with 
Boston  are  Cambridge  and  Old  Concord.     On  your  way 


38    Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

thither  beyond  the  Public  Garden,  the  Arlington  Street 
Church — the  church  of  Gannett, Ware,  and  Brooke  Herford, 
which  grew  out  of  the  famous  Federal  Street  Church  of 
Jeremy  Belknap  and  Channing — and  the  Institute  of  Tech- 
nology, with  Henry  S.  Pritchett  as  President,  you  linger  in 
Copley  Square,  inseparable  from  Trinity  Church  and  the 
memory  of  Phillips  Brooks.  The  Boston  Museum  of  Fine 
Arts  and  the  Public  Library  offer  to  you  the  works  of  the 
masters,  old  and  new,  rare  volumes  and  mural  paintings; 
the  pride  of  the  good  American  and  of  the  connoisseur  exults 
over  illustrious  names  attached  to  volume  and  canvas.  By 
the  New  Old  South,  of  the  attractive  tower,  is  the  Boston 
Art  Club,  and  not  far  distant,  toward  the  Fens,  is  the  Mas- 
sachusetts Historical  Society  r  and  classic  Symphony  Hall. 

The  Venetian  prospect  from  Harvard  Bridge  across  the 
basin  of  the  Charles  will  become  in  time  far  more  beautiful 
by  the  artistic  transformation  of  its  banks,  after  the  fashion 
of  the  celebrated  Alster  Basin;  the  work  is  already  begun 
in  the  Cambridge  Esplanade  and  the  new  Cambridge  Bridge, 
a  masterpiece  in  steel  and  stone.  The  regular  fall  of  the 
oars  of  yonder  crew,  of  the  crimson  pennant,  recall  the 
Charles  River  fleet  of  the  "Autocrat"  and  his  daily  "pull" 
at  sunrise  with  ten-foot  sculls  in  his  water-sulky.  Dr. 
Holmes  says:  "I  dare  not  publicly  name  the  infinite  de- 
lights that  intoxicate  me  on  some  sweet  June  morning,  when 
the  river  and  bay  are  smooth  as  a  sheet  of  beryl-green  silk, 
as  I  run  along  ripping  it  up  with  my  knife-edged  shell  of  a 
boat  ...  to  take  shelter  from  the  sunbeams  under  one 
of  the  thousand  footed  bridges,  and  look  down  its  intermin- 
able colonnades  crusted  with  green  and  oozy  growths,  while 
overhead  streams  and  thunders  the  other  river  whose  every 
wave  is  a  human  soul  flowing  to  eternity.  .  .  .  Why 
should  I  tell  of  these  things?"  And  so  the  dear,  delightful 
poet  writes  on,  interpreting  to  us  anew  the  river  and  life. 

1  1 154  Boylston  Street;    open  to  visitors  on  Wednesday  afternoons. 


From  Harvard  Bridge 


39 


Looking  backward  nearly  three  centuries,  one  perceives 
Captain  John  Smith  in  his  shallop  exploring  this  broad  tidal 
river,  and  on  his  return  offering  his  map  of  the  new  England 
to  his  Prince,  a  boy  of  fifteen,  beseeching  him  to  name  at 
his  pleasure  the  bays,  rivers,  and  hills  north  and  south  of 


The  New  "Cambridge  Bridge"  in  place  of  the  Old 
West  Boston  Bridge. 

the  river  Charles,  which  Smith  had  already  named  in  his 
honor.  To-day,  of  all  the  names  given  by  Prince  Charles 
and  this  king  of  adventure,  so  adept  in  cartography,  only 
three  are  ours — the  Charles  River,  Plimouth,  and  Cape 
Anna. 

We  will  pause  on  the  esplanade  at  the  gate  of  Cambridge 
in  anticipation  of  the  pleasure  of  travelling  over  Massachu- 
setts Avenue  of  long  and  high  degree,  which  extends  far 
northward  into  Middlesex  County,  yet  keeps  within  the 


40    Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

early  bounds  of  Cambridge,  the  "  Newe  Towne,"  selected  by 
Governor  Winthrop  as  the  seat  of  government,  being  further 
inland  and  more  "safe"  than  Boston;  the  chronicles  reveal 
that  the  colonists  were  most  fearful  of  attack  from  "malig- 
nant adversaries,"  who  might  pursue  in  ships  across  the 
ocean  highway  rather  than  from  the  Indians  in  the  byways 
of  the  forest.  The  first  comers,  after  Dudley  and  Brad- 
street,  were  a  company  from  Braintree,  England,  who  had 
tarried  a  little  at  Mount  Wollaston,  and  then  followed  the 
Rev.  Thomas  Hooker  to  these  sloping  meadows.  After  a 
few  months  their  democratic  leader  excused  himself  to  the 
General  Court,  and  was  allowed  to  seek  "pastures  new"  on 
the  -banks  of  the  Connecticut,  where  he  said  more  room 
could  be  found  for  their  cattle.  Yet  the  "knowing  ones" 
surmised  that  which  Hooker  truly  sought  was  more  room 
for  the  expansion  of  the  soul,  out  of  reach  of  the  asperities 
of  the  Boston  Church.  Doubtless  he  foresaw  vexed  discus- 
sion at  the  coming  general  election,  and  the  heated  climax 
when  the  minister  of  the  Boston  Church  climbed  an  oak  on 
Cambridge  Common  in  order  to  carry  his  point,  causing  the 
dismal  exodus  of  Anne  Hutchinson  and  the  other  "  heretics." 
The  vacant  dwellings  within  the  "palisadoe"  were  then 
purchased  by  the  "  sweet-affecting  and  soul-ravishing"  Rev. 
Thomas  Shepard,  under  whose  administration  occurred  the 
event  of  the  century, — the  founding  of  "that  happy  semi- 
nary, Harvard  College,"  and  its  endowment  by  John  Har- 
vard with  the  half  of  his  fortune.  During  many  tranquil 
years  Cambridge  kept  the  even  tenor  of  her  intellectual  way, 
until  again  the  streets  resound  with  trampling  feet  and  the 
sentry  paces  her  ramparts. 

"  On  Cambridge  Green  I  see  the  army  kneel 
In  the  long  twilight,  ere  to  Bunker  Hill 
It  made  the  night  march  for  humanity." 

HEZEKIAH  BUTTERWORTH. 


CAMBRIDGE  (NEWTOWNE),  1630-1633 

"Now  -is  the  time  to  come  to  Cambridge,"  Longfellow  would  say,  "the 
lilacs  are  getting  ready  to  receive  you." — AUTHORS  AND  FRIENDS. 

IN  1775,  on  a  hot  July  day,  some  weeks  after  the  lilacs 
had  smiled  encouragement  on  Cambridge  in  the  face  of  the 
rising  storm  of  war,  a  troop  of  light  horse  swept  on  to  the 
village  green,  and  General  Washington,  whom  they  es- 
corted, unsheathed  his  sword  under  a  great  elm,  formally 
accepting  the  command  of  the  Continental  Army,  and  among 
its  spreading  branches  ordered  a  platform  constructed  that 
he  might  view  the  camp.  He  surveyed  the  most  extraor- 
dinary army  ever  seen.  In  outward  array  a  motley  band 
of  rustics  almost  without  accoutrements,  nevertheless  the 
fustian  jackets  hid  undaunted  hearts,  each  man  constituting 
himself  an  ambassador  for  liberty;  this  one  had  left  his 
nets  unmended ;  a  comrade  his  cobbler's  tools,  the  young 
color-bearer  his  pen,  and  the  sergeant  his  hoe  to  hasten  to 
Cambridge.  Close  to  the  tents  of  the  Rhode  Island  regi- 
ments, the  only  regular  equipment  in  sight,  appeared  im- 
promptu, rude,  cave-like  lodgings  of  turf  on  boards  with 
windows  of  reeds;  the  Connecticut  troops  were  quartered 
in  Christ  Church,  and  the  "Yard"  of  Harvard  College, 
which  has  ever  played  such  a  prominent  part  in  our  history, 
was  for  nearly  a  twelvemonth  a  drill-ground  for  untutored 
officers  and  men,  while  Massachusetts  Hall,  Holden  Chapel, 
Hollis  and  Harvard  Halls  served  their  country  as  barracks ; 
the  surrounding  farmers,  from  the  Berkshires  to  New 
Hampshire,  volunteered  ample  provisions  for  some  fourteen 
thousand  men.  Few  except  the  backwoodsmen  from  be- 
yond the  Blue  Ridge  were  accustomed  to  hardship, — a  little 

41 


42     Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 


CAMBRIDGE 

LANDMARKS:  City  Hall,  Public  Li- 
brary Building,  and  Manual  Train- 
ing School,  gifts  of  Frederick  H. 
Rindge.  The  Harvard  Union,  gift 
of  Major  Henry  L.  Higginson  (here 
reception  to  Prince  Henry  of  Prussia, 
March  6,  1902),  Dana  house  (1823), 
occupied  by  Prof.  E.  H.  Palmer, 
formerly  by  Dr.  A.  P.  Peabody,  and 
the  President's  house,  Quincy  St. 
Henry  James  house,  remodelled  into 
Colonial  Club  house.  Agassiz  house, 
corner  Quincy  and  Broadway.  Presi- 
dent Jared  Sparks  house,  now  New- 
Church  Theological  School,  Quincy 
and  Kirkland  Sts.  (Professors'  Row). 
Divinity  Hall,  Divinity  Avenue. 
Memorial  Hall,  commemorates  patri- 
otism of  graduates:  South  window, 
gift  of  Martin  Brimmer — artist, 
Sarah  W.  Whitman;  flags,  gift  of 
the  nation,  bequeathed  by  Dorothea 
Dix.  In  Sanders  Theatre,  statue 
President  Quincy,  by  W.  W.  Story. 
Windows  in  dining-hall  presented  by 
University  Classes — artists,  La  Farge, 
Crowninshield,  and  others.  The  Uni- 
versity Museum,  including  Agassiz 
Museum  of  Comparative  Zoology, 
Peabody  Museum  of  Ethnology  and 
American  Archaeology;  Semitic  Mu- 
seum, equipped  by  Jacob  H.  Schiff; 
Botanical  Museum,  organized  by 
Prof.  G.  L.  Goodale, — here  unique 
Blaschka  collection  of  glass  flower 
models,  memorial  to  Dr.  Charles  Eliot 
Ware,— open  9  A.M.  to  5  P.M.; 
Sunday,  i  to  5.  Robinson  Hall 
(Dep't  Architecture),  beautiful  in- 
terior, gift  Nelson  Robinson.  Fogg 
Art  Museum,  Richard  M.  Hunt, 
Architect.  Matthews  Hall,  near  the 
site  "  Indian  College,"  where  first 
printing-press  in  country  was  set  up. 
Class-Day  Tree  in  quadrangle  formed 
by  Holden  Chapel,  Harvard  and 
Hollis.  Boylston  Hall  (Chemical 
Laboratory),  on  site  house  first  min- 
isters of  town — Hooker,  Shepard, 
and  Mitchell.  The  Stillman  Infir- 
mary. Lawrence  Scientific  School. 
Jefferson  Physical  Laboratory,  gift 
T.  Jefferson  Coolidge.  Gymnasium. 


parched  corn  and  game  of  the  for- 
est, a  tree-trunk  for  a  pillow,  were 
all  the  supplies  required  by  the 
"Long  Knives,"  these  hunters  of 
the  unerring  rifle,  standing  six 
feet  in  their  moccasins.1 

Washington  saw  the  intrepid 
Captain  Daniel  Morgan  arriving 
after  a  forced  march  of  twenty- 
one  days  from  Winchester,  Va., 
and  smoke  rising  from  the  wig- 
wams of  the  Stockbridge  Indians, 
armed  with  bows  and  arrows. 
The  Commander-in-Chief  set  up 
his  plain  menage  in  the  house  built 
for  President  Wadsworth  in  1736 
(now  facing  Harvard  Square),  but 
finally  removed  to  the  more  com- 
modious mansion  deserted  by 
Col.  John  Vassall  at  the  drum- 
tap  of  the  entering  militia,  which 
necessarily  beat  out  of  town  the 
allies  of  the  King,  bringing  to  an 
unhappy  end  the  peace  of  the 
sumptuous  and  hospitable  homes 
on  "Tory  Row." 

As  the  grim  November  days 
advanced  Washington  gazed  from 
Prospect  Mount  on  the  belea- 
guered city  of  Boston,  longing  to 
break  the  bonds  of  a  forced 

1 "  Of  these  men  Frederic  of  Prussia 
learned  the  value  of  light  bodies  of  sharp- 
shooters."— BANCROFT. 


o 

M 
IS. 


1 


I 

33 

c 


a 

CQ 


44    Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 


Soldiers'  Field,  Weld  Boat  House, 
and  University  Boat  House.  Gore 
Hall,  containing  College  Library 
520,000  vols. —  one  of  its  librarians 
Justin  Winsor,  historian.  "Amer- 
icana," 31,000  vols.,  includes  li- 
braries of  Prof.  Ebeling  and  David 
B.  Warden,  presented  by  Col.  Israel 
Thorndike  and  Samuel  Atkins  Eliot. 
Private  libraries  of  Francis  Parkman 
and  Charles  Sumner,  Dante  collec- 
tion of  Prof.  Norton.  Presentation 
copies  American  poetry,  gift  Long- 
fellow family.  Carlyle's  Collection 
on  Cromwell  and  Frederick  the 
Great.  Largest  collection  known  of 
folk-lore  and  mediaeval  romances. 
MSS.  unpublished  English  ballads, 
French  ballads  collected  with  music 
under  commission  of  Napoleon  III. 
Slavic  collection,  through  A.  C.  Cool- 
idge,  and  Robert  W.  Lowe's  dramatic 
library,  gift  of  John  Drew,  the  actor. 
Collection  John  Bartlett,  on  angling. 
For  other  University  buildings,  see 
pamphlet,  Official  Guide  to  Harvard, pub- 
lished by  the  University,  with  Map. 


inaction ;  the  tents  of  Sir  William 
Howe's  well-equipped  army  cov- 
ered like  mushrooms  the  ruins  of 
Charlestown,  and  the  fallen  scarlet 
and  yellow  leaves  revealed  men- 
acing batteries  on  Breed's  and 
Copp's  Hills.  Even  though  our 
forces  outlined  a  semicircle  from 
Dorchester  to  Maiden,  what  stra- 
tegic attack  could  meet  with  suc- 
cess backed  by  half  -  a  -  ton  of 
powder  to  be  divided  between 
Ward  and  Lee  and  Putnam,  re- 
inforced by  bullets  melted  in 
desperation  from  the  organ-pipes 
of  Christ  Church  and  the  leaden 
escutcheons  of  ancient  tombs?  Almost  had  Washington  led 
his  troops  across  the  frozen  bay,  but  the  better  part  of 
valor  prevailed,  and  in  good  time  the  fleet  of  Sir  William 
Howe  beat  to  windward  in  discreet  retreat,  and  before 
starving  Boston  could  throw  up  her  cocked  hat  at  the  sight 
of  the  last  English  sail  disappearing  beyond  the  headland 
of  Hull,  the  patriot  army  marched  within  her  walls,  and 
Cambridge  was  left  to  comparative  academic  solitude  until 
after  the  capture  of  Burgoyne,  when  some  distinguished 
prisoners  were  quartered  here.  The  Baroness  Riedesel, 
altogether  charmed  with  her  husband's  quarters  in  the  Lech- 
mere  house  on  Brattle  Street,  wrote  to  her  German  home 
of  the  beautiful  lindens  and  agreeable  social  life  of  the 
town. 

Under  the  gambrel-roof  where  Holmes  was  born  was 
planned  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill,  and  Langdon,  the  Presi- 
dent of  Harvard,  went  forth  from  here  to  read  to  the  troops 
the  declaration  by  the  Continental  Congress  for  taking  up 


Under  Holmes'  Gambrel  Roof  45 

arms.  We  know  the  house,  though  it  is  no  more,  for  has 
not  the  "  Poet-at-the-Breakfast-Table  "  told  us  of  its  proper 
garret,  "a  place  for  respectable  ghosts,"  of  the  mice  scam- 
pering and  squeaking  behind  the  wainscot.  The  homestead 
farm  covered  Holmes  Field ;  unnumbered  fluttering  ribbons, 
crimson  and  blue,  here  and  there  attached  to  a  fluttering 
heart, — hit  hard,  perchance,  from  behind  the  bat, — have 
waved  over  this  sandy  soil  where  Dr.  Holmes  coaxed  his 
damask  roses  to  sweeten  the  June  breezes. 

"  Know  old  Cambridge!     Hope  you  do. — 
Born  there?     Don't  say  so!     I  was,  too. 
(Born  in  a  house  with  a  gambrel-roof, — 
"Gambrel! — Gambrel!" — Let  me  beg 
You  '11  look  at  a  horse's  hinder  leg, — 
First  great  angle  above  the  hoof, — 
That's  the  gambrel;  hence  gambrel-roof.) 
Nicest  place  that  ever  was  seen, — 
Colleges  red  and  Common  green." 

In  meditative  mood  Holmes  looks  beyond  the  Common 
and  sees  Christ  Church  and  the  First  Parish  Church  stand- 
ing one  on  each  side  of  the  ancient  churchyard. 

"  Like  Sentinel  and  Nun  they  keep 

Their  vigil  on  the  green ; 
One  seems  to  guard  and  one  to  weep 
The  dead  that  lie  between." 

The  Christ  Church  chimes  ring  out  each  New  Year's  Day 
above  God's  Acre  on  the  anniversary  of  the  flinging  to  the 
breeze  over  the  Cambridge  of  1 776  of  the  new  flag  of  thirteen 
stripes,  with  the  red  and  white  crosses  of  Saint  George  and 
Saint  Andrew  in  the  corner.  At  that  enthusiastic  moment 
Washington  had  not  heard  that  Virginia,  one  of  the  immor- 
tal thirteen,  was  in  tears  over  her  burning  town  of  Norfolk. 


46    Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

On  this  New  Year's  Eve,  Colonel  Palfrey  had  read  service 
in  the  battered  Christ  Church.  Lady  Washington  was  pres- 
ent, having  arrived  at  headquarters  about  the  loth  of  De- 
cember, as  we  know  from  a  letter  of  Washington's  secretary, 
addressed  to  William  Bartlett,  Esq.,  concerning  some  re- 
cently captured  prize  vessels.  Washington  requests  that 
the  prisoners  be  treated  with  all  possible  tenderness,  and 
then  alludes  to  the  cargo,  directing  that  the  limes,  lemons, 
and  oranges  on  board  be  sold  immediately;  "the  General 
will  want  some  of  each  as  well  as  the  sweet-meats  and 
pickles,  as  his  lady  will  be  here  this  day  or  to-morrow.  You 
will  please  pick  up  such  things  as  will  be  acceptable  to  her. 
He  does  not  mean  to  receive  anything  without  payment, 
which  you  will  please  attend  to." 

After  Mrs.  Washington's  arrival  many  other  ladies  came 
into  camp  for  the  winter,  and  the  Vassall  House  opened  its 
doors  wide  to  the  officers  and  their  wives.  A  lifelong 
friendship  was  cemented  between  the  Washingtons  and  the 
"  Quaker-bred  anchor-smith,"  General  Nathanael  Greene  and 
his  lady.  "  Old  Put  "  created  a  sensation  about  the  time  of 
Dr.  Franklin's  visit  with  his  Committee  of  Conference  by 
dashing  up  to  headquarters  with  a  prisoner  behind  him  on 
his  saddle,  a  woman  who  had  been  intercepted  with  a  treach- 
erous letter  in  her  possession,  written  by  the  unsuspected 
Tory,  Dr.  Benjamin  Church,  a  member  of  the  Vigilance 
Committee,  and  forcing  her  to  enter  the  presence  of  General 
Washington.  The  traitor  was  marched  to  fife  and  drum  to 
trial  at  Watertown  from  his  military  hospital  established  at 
the  Henry  Vassall  house  (standing  on  Brattle  Street) .  This, 
and  the  house  of  the  brother,  Col.  John  Vassall  (the  Craigie- 
Longfellow  house),  are  said  to  have  been  connected  by  a 
secret  underground  passage,  and  in  the  Henry  Vassall  house 
was  a  panel  large  enough  to  conceal  a  refugee.  Facing  the 
old  Watertown  road,  the  King's  Highway,  it  belonged  to 


"  Tory  Row,"  Cambridge  47 

the  Remington  and  Belcher  estate  for  some  years.  Jona- 
than Belcher,  the  royal  Governor,  travelled  with  much  cere- 
mony; on  attending  an  assembly  of  the  officers  of  Harvard 
College,  he  was  "guarded  into  town  by  a  military  troop, 
then  waited  on  by  two  foot  companies."  Judge  Sewall 
writes  that  "  Mr.  Jonathan  Belcher  and  his  bride  dine  at 
Lieutenant-Governor  Ushers.  Came  to  town  at  six  o'clock, 
about  twenty  horsemen,  three  coaches  and  many  slays." 
At  Mrs.  Belcher's  funeral  in  1736,  one  thousand  pairs  of 
gloves  were  given  away. 

Penelope  Royall  Vassall,  entering  this  house  as  a  bride  in 
1742,  dwelt  by  her  beloved  row  of  hawthorns  until  the  Tory 
exodus.  The  widow  Vassall  was  a  familiar  figure  in  her 
chariot,  driven  every  Sunday  to  Christ  Church  by  her  old 
Jamaica  servant,  Tony,  and  often  into  Boston  to  pay  visits, 
perhaps  even  as  far  as  her  brother's  mansion  at  Medford. 
Madame  Vassall's  servants  were  proudly  laid  in  the  Vassall 
tomb,  one  at  her  head  and  the  other  at  her  feet,  and  on  the 
Vassall  monument  a  vase  and  the  sun,  vassal,  speak  of  a  long 
lineage.  In  later  years  the  acres  of  the  West  Indian  planter 
became  the  hospitable  home  of  Samuel  Batchelder.1 

In  the  Brattle  House  was  quartered  that  gallant  and 
brave  gentleman,  Major  Mifflin,  portrayed  in  such  a  piquant 
manner  by  Mrs.  Abigail  Adams  in  her  graphic  description 
of  the  social  situation  and  political  happenings  at  the  seat 
of  war.  Mrs.  Adams  was  on  a  visit  at  the  Quartermaster- 
General's  when  General  Lee  commanded  his  dog,  Spada,  to 
mount  and  offer  her  his  paw;  this  trusty  friend  was  Lee's 
companion  at  dinner  parties,  and  received  his  guests  at  Hob- 
goblin Hall  (Royall  House,  Medford).  At  a  skirmish  at 
Lechmere's  Point  (in  East  Cambridge,  near  the  Middlesex 

1  The  Batchelder  House  and  Its  Owners,  by  Mrs.  Isabella  James.  A 
chapter  on  "The  Cambridge  of  1776,  with  the  Diary  of  Dorothy  Dudley," 
edited  by  Arthur  Oilman. 


48    Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

County  Court  House,  whence  a  cannon-ball  from  Putnam's 
Battery  hit  the  Brattle  Street  Church),  four  hundred  regu- 
lars seized  some  cattle,  having  caught  the  sentinels  napping ; 
Colonel  Thompson  and  his  riflemen  marched  neck-high  in 
water  and  drove  them  off.  "  Major  Mifflin,  I  hear,  was 
there,  and  flew  about  as  though  he  would  raise  the  whole 
army.  May  they  never  find  us  deficient  in  courage  or 
spirit,"  writes  Mrs.  Adams.1 

Strolling  from  the  Brattle  House  of  1709  near  Brattle 
Square,  toward  Elm  wood,  one  easily  recognizes,  among 
lovely  flowering  shrubs,  fragrant  with  poetic  associations, 
the  Colonial  roof-trees  of  the  seven  "scarlet-coated"  Tories. 
At  the  corner  of  Ash  Street  (the  boundary  of  the  Palisadoe 
of  1632)  is  the  John  Fiske  house,  which  he  arranged  for  the 
convenience  of  his  library,  whose  rare  volumes  were  crowded 
three  deep  on  the  shelves  at  the  old  house.  (If  you  enter 
Brattle  Street  from  the  Washington  Elm  through  Mason 
Street,  you  pass  between  the  Shepard  Congregational 
Church  and  the  Judge  Fay  house,  in  which  Fair  Harvard 
was  written  by  Rev.  Samuel  Oilman  of  Charleston  and  sung 
at  the  two-hundredth  anniversary  in  1836.  This  house  is 
a  part  of  Radcliffe  College,  of  which  Mrs.  Agassiz  was  long 
President.2  Under  the  favor  of  President  Eliot  and  the 
Fellows  it  follows  closely  year  by  year  the  curriculum 
of  Harvard  University,  though  a  distinct  corporation.) 
Nearly  opposite  the  Major  Henry  Vassall  house  of  1700  is 

1  In  a  letter  from  Braintree  to  Mr.  Adams  at  Philadelphia  some  weeks 
before  Mrs.  Mifflin's  arrival  at  Cambridge,  Mrs.  Adams  says:    "My  com- 
pliments to  Mrs.  Mifflin  and  tell  her  I  do  not  know  whether  her  husband 
is  safe  here.     Bellona  and  Cupid  have  a  contest  about  him.     You  hear 
nothing  from  the  ladies  but  about  Major  Mifflin's  easy  address,  politeness, 
complaisance,  etc.     It  is  well  he  has  so  agreeable  a  lady  in  Philadelphia. 
They  know  nothing  about  forts,  intrenchments,  etc.,  when  they  return; 
or  if  they  do,  they  are  all  forgotten  and  swallowed  up  in  his  accomplish- 
ments."— Letters  of  Mrs.  Adams,  edited  by  her  grandson,  Charles  Francis 
Adams. 

2  Dean  Briggs  of  Harvard  University  is  now  President  of  Radcliffe. 


50    Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

the  Episcopal  Theological  School  (St.  Johns'  of  1867),  with 
the  Deanery  and  Chapel,  and  the  Bishop  Lawrence  house 
adjoining. 

"  I  stand  beneath  the  tree,  whose  branches  shade 
Thy  western  window,  Chapel  of  St.  John!  " 

writes  Longfellow  in  his  study,  the  council  chamber  of  Wash- 
ington, on  yonder  charming  estate,  ever  diffusing  an  atmos- 
phere of  repose,  the  home  of  Miss  Alice  Longfellow.  Beyond 
the  open  fields,  glistening  with  dew-drops  or  white  with 
snow,  now  the  Longfellow  Memorial  Garden,  our  poet  daily 
watched  the  river  current  gliding  in  joyful  mood  or  in 
sadness, 

"Till  the  beauty  of  its  stillness 
Overflowed  me  like  a  tide." 

You  will  pass  the  Lechmere  house  of  1760;  the  Judge 
Lee  house,  the  Gov.  William  E.  Russell  house,  associated 
with  "The  Cambridge  Idea";  and  the  Fayerweather  house 
of  1745,  before  approaching  the  Lowell  Pines.  If  you  had 
chosen  to  turn  aside  from  Brattle  and  follow  Garden  Street 
you  would  arrive  at  the  Botanic  Garden  and  Harvard 
Observatory.  Turning  down  Linnaean  Street,  near  Massa- 
chusetts Avenue,  is  the  Jonathan  Cooper  or  Austin  house  of 
1657.  Deacon  Cooper  willed  his  wife,  "also  my  silver  cup 
and  my  Mare  and  chair  and  the  best  cow  and  one  of  the 
pigs."  At  Lowell's  gate  Longfellow  lingered  under  the 
meeting  elms,  listening  to  the  cry  of  the  herons  winging 
their  way  from  Fresh  Pond  marshes  over  Elm  wood,  asking 
them  to  carry  greeting  to  his  friend.  You,  too,  have  kept 
silent  tryst  with  Lowell  Under  the  Willows  in  An  Indian 
Summer  Reverie,  and  even  tiptoed  up  behind  the  arm- 
chair in  which  he  sat  "toasting  his  toes"  and  dedicating  the 
twilight  hour  to  Charles  Eliot  Norton,  who  dwells  on 
"Shady  Hill": 

"  My  Elmwood  chimneys  seem  crooning  to  me, 
As  of  old  in  their  moody,  minor  key, 
And  out  of  the  past  the  hoarse  wind  blows." 


Memorial  Statues,  Cambridge  51 

Among  the  many  touching  and   appropriate  memorials 
in  Mount  Auburn  is  a  unique  chapel  containing  statues  to 


John  Harvard,  an  "Ideal,"  by  Daniel  C.  French,  Sculpt. 

the  men  of  the  Colony  and  of  the  Revolution ;  a  Sphinx  by 
Millmore,  the  Civil  War  memorial,  and  a  Swiss  boulder 
above  Agassiz's  grave.  The  crown  of  this  man  of  science  is 


52    Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

the  Agassiz  Museum,  for  which  he  dug  the  first  spadeful  of 
earth. 

Turning  from  Mount  Auburn  and  the  immediate  past  to- 
ward the  Charles  River  Reservation  (by  way  of  Mt.  Auburn 
Street  and  Willis  Court),  one  experiences  a  curious  sensation 
for  America,  of  bridging  centuries  of  time  by  traversing  cer- 
tain stone-paths,  laid,  perhaps,  by  the  hardy  Norsemen,  fol- 
lowers of  Thorfinn  and  Leif  Erikson,  who  sought,  Professor 
Horsford  tells  us,  to  establish  fisheries  on  the  Charles. 

At  Cambridge  the  first  printing-press  in  the  country  sent 
forth  the  Bay  Psalm  Book,  "for  the  comfort  of  Saintes  in 
New  England";  also  Eliot's  Indian  Bible.  The  North 
American  Review  and  the  Dial  were  long  edited  by  Cam- 
bridge men.  The  genus,  author,  is  certainly  indigenous  in 
Cambridge  soil,  the  informal  salutation  being,  "  How  is  your 
book  coming  on?"  Nearly  all  the  college  presidents,  more- 
over, entire  families  have  been  disciples  of  the  quill,  notice- 
ably the  Lowells,  Channings,  Wares,  Danas,  and  Storys. 
You  will  know  your  Cambridge  best  by  taking  fireside  jour- 
neys with  those  authors  who  have  eaten  of  the  poets'  salt ; 
with  Dr.  Hale,  Horace  E.  Scudder,  and  Thomas  Wentworth 
Higginson,  and  by  following  boyish  footsteps  about  old 
Cambridge  Thirty  Years  Ago  pursuing  Cheerful  Yesterdays. 
Commencement  was  then  the  summer  festival  of  eastern 
Massachusetts,  and  the  squires  jogged  to  their  alma  mater 
in  chaises  from  miles  around  to  stay  a  few  days  and  enter- 
tain friends.  The  very  games  of  the  Cambridge  schoolboy 
were  seasoned  with  historic  traditions,  and  as  provincial 
colonels  and  generals  in  miniature  they  strode  the  grass- 
grown  ramparts.  Their  curious  oath,  "by  Goffe-Whalley," 
savored  of  the  mysterious  and  exciting  advent  of  the  regi- 
cides. You  wish,  like  Mr.  Higginson,  that  you  knew  on 
which  armorial  tomb  the  boy  Lowell  sat  one  Hallowe'en  and 
watched  for  ghosts. 


Longfellow  and  His  World 


53 


Incidents  here  and  there  reveal  the  sympathetic  chain 
welded  by  the  "  White  Mr.  Longfellow,"  '  linking  Cambridge 
and  the  nation  to  all  the  world.  China  fans  herself  with  the 
Psalm  of  Life,  and  Iceland  said,  "Tell  Longfellow  that  we 
know  him  by  heart."  Mrs.  Fields 's  Diary  relates  that  Long- 
fellow described  being  addressed  by  a  strange,  rough-looking 
officer  in  a  railway  station  near  Washington,  saying,  "Is 
this  Professor  Longfellow?  It  was  I  who  translated  Hia- 
watha into  Russian.  I  have  come  to  this  country  to  fight 
for  the  Union." 

1  The  Norsemen  in  the  days  of  their  stormy  and  reluctant  conversion 
used  always  to  speak  of  the  White  Christ,  and  Bjornstjerne  Bjornson,  on 
leaving  America,  wrote  to  Howells,  "Give  my.  love  to  the  White  Mr. 
Longfellow." 


i 


Christ  Church,  Cambridge. 


ARLINGTON  (WEST  CAMBRIDGE  OR  MENOTOMY), 

1633-1807 

SIGNS  of  a  crisis,  a  coming  appeal  to  arms,  appeared  in 
all  the  towns  near  Boston.  If  you  had  passed  through 
Cambridge  to  Menotomy  (Arlington)  on  the  i8th  of  April, 
1775,  perchance  you  might  have  encountered  an  English 
officer  in  disguise  mapping  out  the  roads,  or  overheard  the 
boast  of  one  of  the  ten  sergeants  posted  by  General  Gage 
hereabouts,  to  cut  off  communications,  that  "five  regiments 
of  regulars  could  easily  march  across  the  continent."  To- 
day, crossing  Alewife  Brook,  the  Cambridge  boundary  line, 
let  us  halt  under  the  mighty  solitary  elm,  which,  with  its 
companion,  long  marked  the  east  gateway  of  Arlington,  and 
review  the  situation  on  the  day  before  the  first  shot  was  fired. 
On  pretence  of  drill,  the  British  were  gathered  on  Boston 
Common,  at  the  foot  of  which  the  transports  awaited  the  em- 
barkation of  Lieutenant-Colonel  Smith  and  his  grenadiers. 
Warren  at  once  dispatched  a  message  to  Hancock  and  Adams 
at  Lexington,  and  the  Concord  supplies  were  hastily  con- 
cealed. Paul  Revere  was  on  the  qui  vive.  Five  minutes  be- 
fore the  sentinels  received  at  sunset  the  order  to  let  no  one 
pass,  Revere's  small  boat  glided  under  the  grim  bows  of  the 
British  man-of-war  Somerset*  He  set  out  over  Charlestown 
Neck  for  Medford,  stopped  at  the  Porter  mansion  on  Ram's 
Head  Lane,2  to  rouse  the  captain  of  the  Minute-men,  and 
crossed  the  Mystic  twice  before  reaching  Menotomy  (Arling- 
ton). 

1  Afterwards  sunk  off  the  treacherous  coast  of  Cape  Cod.     More  than 
one  hundred  years  later  the  battered  hulk  was  uncovered  and  eagerly 
sought  after  by  the  relic-hunter. 

2  At  the  corner  of  Rural  Avenue  and  High  Street. 

54 


The  Samuel  Bowman-Whittemore  House,  Alassachusetts  Avenue, 
Arlington.     Pre-Revolutionary. 


55 


56    Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

About  two  by  the  clock  the  red-coats — "  Lobster-Backs" 
the  mob  called  them  at  the  Boston  Massacre— silently 
crossed  the  sluggish,  winding  Charles  to  Lechmere  Point, 
landing  near  the  County  Court  House  at  East  Cambridge. 
Over  the  Charlestown  Road,  or  "Milk- Row,"  they  marched 
to  Menotomy,  the  Second  Parish  of  Cambridge.  Just  under 
the  elm  gateway,  Samuel  Whittemore  was  "awakened  by 
the  stir  in  the  street,  and,  looking  out,  saw  bayonets  glisten- 
ing in  the  moonlight."  T  His  grandson,  Amos,  repaired  the 
old  flintlocks  in  preparation  for  the  fight.  Hard  by  stood 
the  Black  Horse  Tavern,  which  the  troops  searched  in  vain 
for  the  Committee  of  Safety.  Vice-President  Elbridge 
Gerry  and  Colonels  Lee  and  Orne  escaped  by  the  back  door, 
and  lay  concealed  in  the  corn  stubble.  The  house  is  still 
standing  where  Lieutenant  Sam  Bowman  answered  a  sol- 
dier's request  for  water  with  "What  are  you  out  at  this 
time  of  night  for? "  So  they  turned  to  the  house  opposite  (de- 
stroyed), where  they  were  sure  of  hearty  welcome,  because 
its  whitened  chimneys  betokened  a  Tory  inmate. 

On  the  corner  of  Winchester  Road  (Mystic  Street)  the 
troops  knocked  roughly  at  the  village  shoemaker's,  asking 
why  the  candles  burned  at  this  unseemly  hour.  The  gude- 
wife  replied  that  she  was  making  herb  tea.  The  shoe- 
maker's "herb  tea"  was  a  concoction  afterwards  absorbed 
by  the  red-coats  in  the  form  of  solid  material,  sometimes 
known  as  "Yankee  bullets,"  made  from  the  household  pew- 
ter. Captain  Locke  mustered  the  Menotomy  men,  and  they 
marched  to  Lexington.  The  "  Exempts"  did  duty  bravely, 

Address  of  Samuel  Abbot  Smith  on  West  Cambridge  in  1775.  Mr. 
Whittemore  was  over  eighty  years  of  age,  yet  he  refused  to  seek  safety 
with  his  wife,  but  took  up  his  stand  behind  a  stone  wall  on  Mystic  Street, 
and  did  deadly  work  against  the  retreating  British  regulars.  They  bay- 
oneted him  and  left  him  for  dead,  but  he  was  borne  to  Cooper's  tavern, 
attended  by  Dr.  Tufts  of  Medford,  and  lived  to  ninety-eight  years  of  age. 
Amos  Whittemore  invented  the  cotton  and  wool  carding  machine. 


Arlington 


57 


seizing  Earl  Percy's  military  supplies  in  front  of  the  Town 
House,  the  first  capture  of  the  Revolution.  The  women 
fled  to  "George  Prentiss  on  the  hill."  Lame  Jason  Russell 
was  warned  to  fly  by  one  Ammi  Cutter,  but  instead  barri- 
caded his  tavern  (Jason  Street  corner).  At  this  hour  the 


Procession  of  Birches,  Mystic  Lake,  Arlington. 

"  Cream  birches,  yellow-curtain 'd,  break 
The  cloudless,  pale  blue  sky,  and  shake 
Their  sprays  to  the  pellucid  lake" — J.  E.  NESMITH. 

Danvers  and  Salem  Minute-men  were  watching  up  the  road 
to  harass  Earl  Percy's  men  on  the  retreat.  Suddenly  a 
flanking  party  attacked  them  in  the  rear;  they  rushed  into 
the  tavern,  and  eleven  were  killed,  with  Jason  Russell  and 
two  English. 


58     Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

The  Americans  hastened  down  the  hillside  to  the  "  foot  of 
the  rocks."  (You  may  define  this  spot  on  your  way  toward 
Arlington  Heights  by  the  old  Locke  houses  and  the  Lowell 
turnpike.)  With  Gen.  Heath  and  Dr.  Warren  they  pressed 
the  flying  British  closely.  The  loss  of  the  crestfallen  regu- 
lars was  273  men ;  the  Americans  one  third  as  many,  twenty- 
two  of  whom  were  killed  in  Menotomy.  As  the  last  red-coat 
crossed  the  Alewife  Brook  into  Cambridge,  the  men  of 
Menotomy,  who  had  waked  up  that  morning  as  King 
George's  subjects,  slept  as  American  patriots. 

A  visit  in  Arlington  is  not  complete  without  a  peep  at  the 
district  of  the  "  Flobeenders,"  by  way  of  Pleasant  Street, 
which  leads  past  the  Trowbridge  residence  to  Spy  Pond  and 
beautiful  Belmont,  and  also  a  ride  to  Winchester  in  view  of 
the  Mystic  Ponds.  Of  course  you  will  like  to  see  "The 
Partings,"  the  ancient  shoal  which  divides  Mystic  Pond. 
The  shad  have  deserted  their  haunts  since  the  intrusion  of 
the  Water  Works.  The  fishway  is  under  the  care  of  the 
Massachusetts  Fish  Commission.1 

It  was  the  lovely  Spy  Pond  which  impelled  J.  T.  Trow- 
bridge to  take  up  his  habitation  in  Arlington,  for  no  land- 
scape is  complete  to  him  without  water.  Every  boy  knew 
how  Jack  Hazard  found  A  Chance  for  Himself  in  the  days 
when  Our  Young  Folks  was  edited  by  Mr.  Trowbridge 
and  Lucy  Larcom.  His  story  of  The  Medal  was  suggested 
by  an  adventure  of  the  author  himself  on  Mystic  Lake, 
when  he  rescued  a  boy  from  drowning,  and  for  which  the 
Humane  Society  surprised  him  with  a  medal.  Longfellow, 
walking  with  his  host,  Mr.  Trowbridge,  on  the  shore  of  Spy 
Pond,  said:  "  Have  you  never  put  this  lake  into  a  poem?" 
Menotomy  Lake,  was  his  answer: 


1  For  details  of  delightful  walks  along  the  Reservation  Parkways  in  this 
vicinity,  see  Bacon's  Walks  and  Rides  About  Boston. 


•?•'''•     '-'V"4--;   5$     '£t'v£ 

,*.'•.'  ••*<Ah**'  ";>-  s^rV>?y" 

^-  ^iK?  •      ^? 

:         •        "i-^^^.f     '   ..         '          ^- 


60    Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

"  I  row  by  steep  woodlands,  I  rest  on  my  oars 

Under  banks  deep  embroidered  with  grass  and  young  clover; 
Far  round,  in  and  out,  wind  the  beautiful  shores, 
The  lake  in  the  midst,  with  the  blue  heavens  over." 

Beyond  the  Soldiers'  Monument,  on  which  stands  the 
''Heater  Piece,"  the  buildings  of  the  square  represent  inter- 
esting contrasts  of  architecture :  the  First  Parish  Church  of 
1847  and  the  Robbins  Memorial  Library  (1892),  the  first  free 
library  in  Massachusetts.  Its  lofty  frescoed  reading-room, 
with  bronzes  and  the  valuable  portraits,  are  most  interesting. 
Conspicuous  is  the  stately  Squire  William  Whittemore  house 
of  1809,  now  the  Robbins  mansion.  The  Russell  store,  of 
four  generations,  where  the  British  pulled  the  plugs  out  of 
the  molasses  barrels,  is  opposite  the  Cutter  homestead  on 
Water  Street,  that  ancient  mill-lane  over  which  the  Water- 
town  corn  was  brought  to  be  ground  at  Captain  Cooke's 
mill  on  Vine  Brook. 

Massachusetts  Avenue  is  the  Paul  Revere  route,  except 
for  a  short  distance,  where  the  old  road,  now  Appleton 
Street,  makes  a  circuit  back  to  the  avenue.  Arlington 
Heights  was  a  part  of  the  Welsh  Mountains.  A  view  of  the 
fields  of  Middlesex  and  the  entire  stage  of  the  siege  of  Boston 
may  be  obtained  by  following  Park  Avenue  to  the  water 
tower. 


LEXINGTON  (CAMBRIDGE  FARMS),  1640-1712 

"  In  their  ragged  regimentals 
Stood  the  old  Continentals, 

Yielding  not."  MCMASTER. 

IT  was  the  opening  of  a  warm,  languid  day  in  an  unusu- 
ally early  spring,  when,  after  the  rapid,  silent  march,  Major 
Pitcairn  halted  on  the  scraggly,  pasture-like  common  of 
Lexington,  facing  some  sixty  intrepid  militia,  drawn  up  by 
Sergeant  Munroe.  Pitcairn  was  aware  by  the  alarm-bells 
from  the  villages  that  messengers  had  announced  the  ad- 
vance of  the  troops.  (Thaddeus  Bowman,  acting  as  scout, 
had  escaped  capture  by  "  a  hair's  breadth,"  and  dashed  back 
to  the  parade-ground,  warning  Captain  Parker,  who  sum- 
moned his  company  by  beat  of  drums  from  Buckman's 
Tavern.)  Nevertheless  they  expected  an  easy  victory  over 
"these  country  people,"  whom  Governor  Hutchinson's 
message  to  Parliament  had  declared  "must  soon  disperse,  as 
it  is  the  season  for  planting  their  Indian  corn,  the  chief  sus- 
tenance of  New  England."  Pitcairn  was  astounded  when 
his  "Disperse,  ye  rebels!"  was  answered  by  a  firm  stand  on 
the  defensive,  and  by  volley  for  volley. 

In  the  meantime,  Revere  and  Dawes  were  captured  on 
the  road  to  Concord;  Dr.  Samuel  Prescott,  "a  high  Son  of 
Liberty,"  escaped  by  leaping  a  stone  wall.  The  British  offi- 
cers, frightened  by  the  report  of  the  Lexington  guns,  released 
their  prisoners.  Previous  to  this  Revere  had  gone  to  the 
house  of  the  patriot  Counsellor,  the  Rev.  Jonas  Clarke,  to 
persuade  the  proscribed  Hancock  and  Adams  to  set  out 
at  once  for  Woburn  Precinct  (Burlington),  as  they  were 
marked  men, — -"  obnoxious  leaders," — outside  the  pardon  of 
his  most  gracious  Majesty.  Thus  ran  the  Tory  ballad: 

61 


62    Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

"And  for  their  King,  that  John  Hancock, 

And  Adams  if  they  're  taken 
Their  heads  for  signs  shall  hang  up  high 
Upon  the  hill  called  Beacon." 

As  Revere  dashed  up  with  his  insistent  message  the  guard 
begged  him  not  to  make  a  noise.  "Noise!  you '11  have  noise 
enough  before  long.  The  regulars  are  coming!" 


Captain  John  Parker  Statue,  on  Lexington  Common. 

"  Stand  your  ground.     Don't  fire  unless  fired  upon,  but  if  they  mean 

to  have  a  war,  let  it  begin  here." 

Sculptor,  H.  A.  Kitson. 

Hancock  polished  his  sword,  all  afire  to  answer  the  alarm- 
bell  on  the  Green,  but  Adams  finally  persuaded  him  that 
"  being  of  the  Cabinet "  theirs  was  another  business,  and  they 
set  off  for  the  house  of  Madame  Jones  and  the  Rev.  Mr. 


A  Glen  on  the  Old  W  oburn  Road,  Lexington. 

' '  We  paused  beside  the  pools  that  lie 

Under  the  forest  bough." — -SHELLEY. 

63 


64    Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 


Marrett,  followed  by  the  sprightly  Madame  Lydia  Hancock, 
and  the  witty  and  coquettish  Dorothy  Q.,  in  Hancock's 
coach.1 

As  the  undaunted  Captain 
Parker  and  the  Minute-men  re- 
turned their  fire,  the  regulars 
recognized  a  foe  worthy  of  their 
steel.  These  farmers  might  be 
unlessoned  in  the  finesse  of  war, 
—yet  here  was  reserve  force,  the 
discipline  of  character  inherited 
from  men  who  had  conquered  the 
hardships  of  the  frontier.  Each 
husbandman  was  the  head  of  a 
little  independent  kingdom  which 
rose  early  to  churning  and  the 
hoe,  the  freeman's  sceptre  when 
upturning  his  own  soil;  they 
worked  long  by  candle-light  in  the 
"  keeping  room,"  exchanging  com- 
mon-sense philosophy  dashed  with  humor  while  husking 
corn,  shelling  the  ears  by  drawing  them  across  the  handle 
of  a  frying-pan  fastened  over  a  wash-tub,  and  picking 

1  Madame  Hancock  was  the  widow  of  Thomas  Hancock,  who  bequeathed 
the  "  Hancock  House  "  to  his  nephew  John.  John  Hancock  and  Dorothy 
Quincy  were  married  the  following  September  at  the  Thaddeus  Burr 
house,  Fairfield,  Conn.,  and  were  forced  to  spend  their  honeymoon  in 
hiding,  as  the  red-coats  had  marked  for  capture  this  elegant,  cocked  hat 
"rebel"  diplomatist  of  the  blue  and  buff.  Dorothy  Quincy  Hancock, 
daughter  of  Judge  Edmund  Quincy  of  Braintree,  the  niece  of  Holmes's 
"Dorothy  Q.,"  is  a  fascinating  figure  in  history.  Lafayette  paid  her  a 
visit  of  ceremony  and  pleasure  at  the  Hancock  House  on  his  triumphal 
tour,  and  no  doubt  the  once  youthful  chevalier  and  reigning  belle  flung 
many  a  quip  and  sally  over  the  teacups  of  their  eventful  past.  Madame 
Hancock  was  fond  of  depicting  the  manners  of  the  British  officers  quar- 
tered in  Boston,  and  dwelt  particularly  on  the  military  virtue  of  Earl 
Percy,  son  of  the  Duke  of  Northumberland,  who  slept  in  a  tent  among 


LEXINGTON 

LANDMARKS.  Massachusetts  Ave- 
nue. "  Great  Meadows,"  Mt.  Eph- 
raim.  Tablet  Benj.  Wellington, 
corner  Pleasant  St.  Pollen  house, 
now  Library.  Emerson  and  Dwight 
preached  here.  Follen  Church. 
Jonathan  Harrington  house.  Fifer 
Minute-men.  Mt.  Independence 
(320  ft.).  Peirce  homestead,  Maple 
St.  Elm,  161  years.  Col.  W.  A. 
Tower  estate.  Munroe  Tavern. 
Munroe  Hill.  Cannon  Rock,  Brit- 
ish fieldpiece  commanded  village. 
Mason  mansion.  Lord  Percy's  can- 
non. Town  Hall,  with  Gary  Library, 
open  2  to  8  P.M.;  Sandham's 
"  Dawn  of  Liberty."  The  Old  Belfry, 
Clarke  St.  Monuments  on  Com- 
mon. First  Parish  Church.  Old 
Burying  Ground,  tombs  Parsons, 
Hancock,  and  Clarke ;  monument  to 
Gov.  Eustis.  Site  Daniel  Harrington 
house.  Mrs.  Harrington  was  daugh- 
ter of  Robert  Munroe,  first  man 
killed  in  battle  of  Lexington.  Lex- 
ington Golf  Club,  North  Lexington. 


Lexington  65 

over  cranberries,  or  plucking  turkeys.  It  was  customary 
for  country  lawyers,  physicians,  and  clergymen  to  partake 
in  homespun  labors,  the  whole  family  rising  at  daybreak. 
At  first  the  kitchen  served  as  parlor,  storehouse,  and 
shop,  blocks  of  logs  for  seats,  and  bean-porridge  in  wooden 


Munroe  Tavern,  1695.     Headquarters  of  Lord  Percy. 

On  the  Sign  of  the  Punch  Bowl.     "  Entertainment — By  Wm.  Munroe. 

1775."    Property  of  William  H.  Munroe,  Esq. 

trenchers  as  the  piece  de  resistance.  The  entire  house  of 
their  first  minister,  to  which  the  Rev.  John  Hancock  brought 
his  bride,  was  the  present  ell  of  the  Hancock-Clarke  house.1 

his  soldiers  encamped  on  the  Common  in  the  winter  of  '75.  The  rings 
made  by  these  tents  have  been  traced  by  Dr.  Hale  in  the  early  grass  of 
spring. 

'The  address  of  the  Rev.  Carlton  Staples  of  the  First  Parish  Church, 


66    Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

By  and  by  Lexington  farms  became  so  prosperous  that  the 
men  drove  the  cows  to  larger  pasturage  in  New  Hampshire. 
For  the  two  days'  journey  the  women-folk  packed  hampers 
of  goodies,  and  great  was  the  merry-making  over  the  return. 

At  Lexington  the  British  also  met  the  "fighting  Munros." 
This  patriotic  and  martial  race  lived  in  the  eleventh  century 
on  the  River  Ro  in  the  north  of  Ireland,  and  won  by  valor 
large  grants  in  Scotland,  becoming  lords  of  the  Barony  of 
Fowlis.1  The  Munroe  lands  in  Lexington  are  Scotland  to 
this  day. 

Later  on  in  the  severe  running  fight  on  the  retreat  from 
Concord,  the  regulars  were  picked  off  from  the  stone  walls 
by  the  Minute-men  according  to  the  tactics  of  the  French 
and  Indian  Wars.2  The  Captain  Parker  statue  represents 

Lexington,  on  the  anniversary  of  the  ordination  of  John  Hancock  over 
Cambridge  Farms  Parish,  1698,  is  an  interesting  picture  of  the  times. 
Young  Parson  Hancock  was  married  to  Elizabeth  Clarke  of  Chelmsford, 
a  minister's  daughter,  granddaughter,  and  great-granddaughter.  The 
bride's  mother  was  a  daughter  of  the  Rev.  Edward  Bulkley  of  Concord, 
son  of  the  Rev.  Peter  Bulkley,  the  founder.  Who  will  say  that  "  blood 
does  not  tell"  when  we  trace  to  this  home  a  long  line  of  men  and  women 
who  have  rendered  grand  services  to  the  State,  the  Church,  and  the 
nation?  Parson  Hancock's  Common  Place  Book  held  pithy  sayings  of 
his  own:  "War  is  a  fire  struck  in  the  devil's  tinder-box,"  "Some  men 
will  marry  their  children  to  swine  for  a  golden  trough. " 

1  Sir  Hector  Munro  dwells  in  the  present  castle  (1600)  of  Fowlis,  Pro- 
vince of  Ross  and  Cromatz.     The  historic  castle  erected  by  Donald  Fifth. 
in  1154  was  burned.     History  of  the  Munros,  by  Alexander  Mackenzie, 
and  Sketch  of  the  Munro  Clan,  by  James  Phinney  Munroe,  Lexington. 

2  In   the  far-away  South,  some  weeks  after  the  Battle  of  Lexington, 
a  party  of  hunters  clad  in  buckskin,  —  armed  with  flintlocks,  hatchets, 
and  scalping-knives,   lest  they  encounter  the  redskin  varmints  in  these 
impenetrable  cane-brakes  or  the  trackless  forests, — supped  on   "jerk" 
and  parched  corn.     By  a  clear  spring,  they  had  resolved  to  pitch  their 
tents  and  make  a  settlement,  and  what  should  they  name  this  luxuriant 
wilderness?  Strange  news  came  on  the  wing:    "  King  George's  troops  had 
called  Americans   '  rebels '    and  shot  them  down  at   Lexington  on  the 
igth  of  April! "     Every  other  name  was  flung  aside,  and  Lexington  in  old 
Kentucky  was  born. 


Lexington 


67 


him  as  leaping  upon  a  stone  wall.  In  New  England  towns, 
you  see  this  running  from  tree  to  tree,  the  "advance,  cover, 
and  retreat  fire"  of  Indian  warfare  repeated  in  the  games 
of  the  schoolboys. 

Among  the  men  of  Acton,  Woburn,  Reading,  and  Con- 
cord were  old  Indian  fighters,  and  thankful  indeed  were 
the  poor  "red-coats,"  hot  and  hungry,  without  food  since 


The  Buckman  Tavern,  i6QO,  Lexington. 
Here  the  Minute  Men  awaited  the  beat  of  drum. 

midnight,  when  Lord  Percy's  "square"  opened  and  took 
them  in. 

Of  the  five  houses  which  our  "gran'thers"  tell  us  faced 
the  fight,  three  remain:  the  Buckman  Tavern  imbedded 
with  bullets,  the  Marrett  Munroe  house  next  the  handsome 
Congregational  Church,  and  the  house  of  Jonathan  Har- 
rington, to  which  he  crawled,  wounded  to  death.  The 
great  elm  on  the  Green  was  a  witness,  as  well  as  its  sister 
elm,  planted  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Clarke  before  his  house  on  Bed- 
ford Row,  now  Hancock  Street,  where  two  illustrious  guests 
were  startled  by  the  knock  of  Paul  Revere. 


68 


Here  on  the  visitors'  book  of  the  Lexington  Historical 
Society  were  recorded  in  one  year  twelve  thousand  pilgrims, 
who  came,  as  one  might  say,  from  Kamchatka  to  Peru,  to 
see  not  only  this  interesting  collection, — from  a  cup  and 
spoon  used  by  Washington  at  Munroe  Tavern  to  the  ink- 
stand of  Theodore  Parker, — but  the  dwelling  of  the  fervent 
and  learned  Jonas  Clarke,  bold  inditer  of  patriotic  State 
papers,  and  its  "best  room,"  where  Hancock  courted 
Dorothy  Ouincy. 

The  birthplace  of  Theodore  Parker  is  a  short  walk  through 
North  Street  from  the  Waltham  road.  In  Waltham  stands 
the  Governor  Christopher  Gore  house;  from  here  the 
Charles  River  courses  through  the  city  toward  Watertown 
and  Newton.  The  loveliest  of  country  vistas  may  be  ob- 
served from  the  high  ridge  on  the  " old  Woburn  road"  lead- 
ing from  Lexington  past  beautiful  Shaker  Glen  toward 
Woburn,  where  in  that  ancient  town  this  road  as  far  as  the 
"Winn"  Library  becomes  "Lexington  road,"  once  upon  a 
time  the  old  Military  Lane  leading  from  the  training  field 
to  "Up  Street"  (Cambridge  Street). 


BEDFORD,  1642-1729 

"Old  roads  winding  as  old  roads  will, 
Here  to  a  ferry,  and  there  to  a  mill, 
And  glimpses  of  chimneys  and  gabled  eaves 
Through  green  elm  arches  and  maple  leaves ." 

WHITTIER. 

THE  quick  marching  course,  which  the  British  took  from 
Lexington  to  Concord,  measures  two  leagues;  the  other 
road  to  history  is  three  leagues.  Choose  first  the  longest 
way  round,  that  you  may  see  the  regal  elms  of  Bedford. 
Metaphorically  kept  under  glass  in  the  heroic  spirit  of  the 
fine  old  town,  they  rival  in  rarity  the  remarkable  flag  pre- 
served at  the  Library '  in  the  Town  Hall. 

This  was  the  flag  of  the  Bedford  Minute-men  in  the  Con- 
cord fight.  Sent  over  from  England,  a  hundred  years  be- 
fore, it  was  carried  by  the  Middlesex  County  Regiment  of 
the  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony.  A  century  later  it  came 
forth  from  the  garret  of  the  Page  homestead  to  answer  the 
Lexington  alarm.  Ensign  Page  returned  the  flag  to  its 
garret  corner  for  another  hundred  years ;  then  it  celebrated 
the  Concord  Centennial,  and  finally  was  presented  to  the 
town  by  Captain  Cyrus  Page.  The  rich  red  damask  of  the 
first  banner  to  proclaim  the  sentiment  of  the  patriots  bids 
fair  to  hold  its  lustre  as  long  as  the  precious  independence 
it  symbolizes. 

On  the  approach  from  Lexington,  just  by  the  Shawshine 
River  bridge,  Shawshine  Road  led  aforetime  through  the 
woods  to  the  Shawshine  house.  Now  you  will  find  the  old 
Webber- Kendrick  house  in  its  place.  Brooksby  Road  turns 

1  Open  Wednesday  and  Saturday  afternoons. 


70    Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 


from  Great  Road  at  the  Reed  Tavern, — residence  of  Elihu 
G.  Loomis.  Its  halcyon  days  were  those  of  the  stage- 
coaches between  New  Hampshire  and  Boston;  higher  still 
is  the  Page  house,  whose  ancient  site  across  the  road  com- 
•,  mands  the  Shawshine  Valley.  If  you 
possess  the  genius  for  sauntering, 
which  Thoreau  admired  in  Channing, 
follow  the  Page  Road  and  the  old  Bil- 
lerica  Road  passing  the  ruins  of  the 
Fitch  mill,  where  meal  was  ground, 
cider  made,  and  lumber  sawed  by 
good  miller  Fitch.  High  on  the  left 
is  the  Willard  Hospital,  a  benevolent 
enterprise;  its  President  is  Edward 
Everett  Hale.  You  cannot  mistake 
the  Bacon  homestead  of  six  genera- 
tions, or  the  flourishing  Parker  farms. 
This  is  a  wide  (two  miles  or  so)  di- 
gression from  the  Great  Road,  so 
turn  back  to  the  beckoning  village 
spire,  which  has  these  many  years  pointed  upward  over  the 
enchanting  vale  of  the  Shawshine. 

According  to  the  old  saying,  "  a  rib  was  taken  off  Billerica 
to  make  Bedford,"  but  the  evolution  of  Bedford  began 
when  Governor  Winthrop  and  Deputy-Governor  Dudley 
selected  hereabouts  their  thousand-acre  grants  from  the 
Crown.  They  journeyed  down  the  Concord  River,  making 
up  a  little  tiff  on  the  way,  and  the  Governor's  Journal  tells 
us  of  their  final  friendly  hand-shake  over  the  Two  Brothers  1 
rocks  which  divided  their  farms.  Meadows  of  distinction 

1  The  Two  Brothers  rocks,  in  a  fine  botanical  region,  are  north  of  the 
village  toward  Billerica.  Follow  Dudley  Road  and,  with  permission,  a 
grassy  back  lane  through  the  Pickman  estate  to  the  Concord  River. 
Dudley  Leavitt  Pickman  is  a  descendant  of  Deputy-Governor  Dudley. 


First  Parish  Meeting- 
house, 1816;  within,  Fitch 
Clock,  1812. 


Bedford  71 

are  these  in  the  annals  of  wild  blossoms,  its  rarest  denizens 
being  the  water-marigold,  the  crowfoot,  the  swamp  rose- 
mallow,  and  crowned  in  May  by  the  amethyst  petals  of 
Emerson's  loved  Rhodora  flower: 

"  Here  might  the  red  bird  come,  his  plumes  to  cool, 
And  court  the  flower  that  cheapens  his  array." 

The  Winthrop  farm  district  runs  south  to  the  village,  nigh 
to  great  Wilson  oak  in  Wilson  Park,  where  the  Minute-men 


A  Farm  Lane,  Bedford. 
"  There  's  nae  life  like  the  Ploughman  in  the  month  o'  sweet  May." 

assembled.  Snatching  a  hasty  breakfast  at  Fitch's  tavern, 
they  marched  to  Concord,  inspired  by  Captain  Jonathan 
Wilson's  "Come,  boys,  we'll  take  a  little  something,  and 


72     Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

we  '11  have  every  dog  of  them  before  night."  The  Fitch 
Tavern  is  the  centre  of  an  interesting  group  of  homesteads 
representing  different  periods  of  architecture;  on  the  east 
side  is  the  Parson  Stearns  '  homestead  of  1790,  with  gambrel 
roof  and  twenty-four  paned  windows;  west,  shadowed  by 
the  symmetrical  Fitch  elm,  is  the  Squire  Stearns  "brick- 
end"  mansion  with  the  four  side  chimneys,  which  replaced 
the  early  "one  great  chimney"  fashion.  Its  fascinating 
door  is  the  original  denizen  with  "  2 -foot "  hinges  restored  by 
the  present  owner,  G.  R.  Blinn. 

One  hundred  and  seventy-two  years  sit  lightly  upon  the 
exterior  of  the  Fitch  Tnvern,  the  oldest  house  in  the  village, 
but  the  interior  holds  hall-marks  of  age:  "great  beams  sag 
from  the  ceilings  low,"  countless  tall,  short,  and  fat  cup- 
boards surround  the  six  fireplaces  of  the  six-flued  chimney. 
How  grateful  to  a  weary  traveller  the  glowing  logs  in  De- 
cember after  the  small  chaise  foot-stove,  and  the  geniality 
of  mine  host  as  he  dispensed  flip  and  good  cheer  from  the 
movable  carved  corner  cupboard!  Its  scalloped  shelves 
hold  to-day  the  family  delft  of  Jeremiah  Fitch,  merchant  of 
Boston,  for  whom  Bedford  Street  was  named. 

Among  the  public-spirited  men  of  Bedford  is  Mr.  Wallace 
G.  Webber  of  the  old  Webber  family.  Bedford  has  happily 
restored  to  her  highways  the  appellation  of  Road  joined  to 
that  of  a  family  holding,  before  having  been  irrevocably  lost 
and  lamented.  In  the  Free  Library  the  Bedford  Historical 
Society  have  remarkable  heirlooms, — among  them  the  Web- 
ber cradle,  brought  over  in  168-,  Mistress  Stearns's  curi- 
ous hand  box  for  weaving  lace,  and  Parson  Stearns's  desk.2 

1  Birthplace  of  the  Rev.  Samuel  Stearns  of  the  Old  South  Church,  the 
Rev.  W.  A.  Stearns,  of  Amherst,  Josiah  A.  Stearns.  Ph.D.,  and  the  Rev. 
Eben  S.  Stearns,  Chancellor  of  the  State  University  of  Nashville. 

2  Illustrated  Journal  of  Samuel  Stearns  and  Gov.  Winthrop's  Farm,  by 
Abram  English  Brown,  New  England  Magazine. 


Bedford  73 

Across  the  Great  Road  is  the  Rev.  Nicholas  Bowes  house 
(1731),  first  minister,  the  residence  of  Mrs.  M.  R.  Lawrence. 
Toward  the  northern  bounds  of  the  town,  just  beyond  the 
Captain  John  Lane  lean-to  is  Sweetwater  Avenue,  leading 
to  Bedford  Springs.1 

Across  meadows  and  meadows  rises  the  spire  of  the  old 
Carlisle  Meeting-house,  and  blue  Wachusett  rests  on  a  green 
divan.  Presently  appear  the  three  spires  of  Billerica.  Your 
advent  to  Lowell  from  the  North  Billerica  highway  is  wel- 
comed by  the  chief  Passaconaway,  the  genius  of  the  Merri- 
mack  valley. 

1  An  Indian  legend  clings  to  these  mineral  springs  of  Sweet  Waters. 
The  forest  tribe  had  captured  a  young  pioneer,  bound  him  to  a  tree  in- 
tending to  put  him  to  death;  Sweet  Water,  the  beautiful  daughter  of  the 
chief  Mancomee,  snatched  the  burning  brand  from  the  fagots  crying  : 
"  The  Great  Spirit  is  angry,  the  pale- face  shall  not  die,  unless  Sweet 
Water  dies  with  him."  Mancomee  heard  the  Great  Spirit  and  bade  a 
warrior  unbind  the  captive,  who  eventually  married  Sweet  Water,  be- 
coming a  counsellor  of  the  tribe. 


CONCORD,  1635 

MUSKETAQUID,  GRASS-GROWN  RIVER 

"  The  mind  loves  its  home." — EMERSON  on  "  Nature." 

You  are  arrived  in  Concord  with  May  smiling  on  the 
meadows,  the  river  freshet  climbing  the  tree  trunks,  and  her 
elms'  bare,  brown  branches  delicately  fringed  with  green 
lace;  you  say:  "There  is  but  one  Concord  in  the  world," 
and  wonder  if  beauty  of  environment  is  not  after  all  a  more 
compelling  power  in  directing  the  true  and  beautiful  pen 
and  chisel  than  Chatterton's  garret. 

"Genius  burns,"  said  Miss  Alcott's  Jo,  and  clinging  to 
Hawthorne's  Mosses  from  an  Old  Manse,  you  begin  to  pursue 
Concord's  elusive  many-sided  Muse  on  the  battle-ground  at 
the  Old  North  Bridge  where  the  eternal  Minute-Man  :  stands 
guard,  traversing  thence  the  river  brink  of  the  loitering, 
slumberous  Musketaquid  to  the  Old  South  Bridge  under  the 
hill  Nashawtuk.  How  softly  the  Concord  and  the  Assabeth 
glide  together  beneath  the  hemlocks' 2  outstretched  arms  as 
they  stoop  to  tell  the  flags  and  rushes  and  cardinal  flower 
the  golden  thoughts  of  Channing,  Hawthorne,  and  Thoreau, 
recounting  the  table-talk  of  three  congenial  souls  who 
mirthfully  partook  of  a  savory  meal  spread  out  on  a  moss- 
grown  log  in  this  beautiful  wild  wood  banqueting  hall !  And 
as  you  drift  with  the  gentle  current  into  the  deeper  solitudes 
of  the  Assabeth  more  and  more  you  feel  it  a  presumption  to 

1  The  first  statue  of  Daniel  Chester  French,  who  was  born  in  Concord 

2  A  tablet  is  here  inscribed  "To  the  most  .courteous  kindly  gentleman 
George  Bradford  Bartlett."     It  was  his  constant  pleasure  to  show  to  his 
acquaintances  the  beauties  of  Concord. 

74 


Concord 


75 


attempt  a  word-picture  of  this  spot,  after  Hawthorne's  mar- 
vellous interpretation  of  the  river  and  his  glorification  of 
the  "  black  mud  over  which  the  river  sleeps  "  in  his  aphorism 


The  Old  Manse,  Concord. 

"My  house  stands  in  low  land,  with  limited  outlook,  and  on  the  skirt  of 
the  village.  But  I  go  with  my  friend  to  the  shore  of  our  little  river  ;  and 
with  one  stroke  of  the  paddle,  I  leave  the  village  politics  and  personalities  be- 
hind, and  pass  into  a  delicate  realm  of  sunset  and  moonlight." — "  Nature." 
Written  by  EMERSON  in  the  Old  Manse. 

of  the  noisome  yellow  and  the  pure  white  water-lilies,  the 
ugly  and  celestial  blossoming  from  the  same  soil. 

Through  a  cracked  window-pane  of  his  study  1  in  the  Old 

1  This  study  was  the  "Saint's  Chamber"  of  the  minister's  house.  It 
•was  the  study  also  of  Dr.  Ezra  Ripley,  of  Hawthorne,  and  of  Parson 
Emerson's  grandson,  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson. 


76    Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

Manse,  the  Rev.  William  Emerson  watched  the  fight  at  the 
Old  North  Bridge  where  the  stream  is  about  the  breadth  of 
twenty  strokes  of  a  swimmer's  arm.  At  sunrise  the  good 
parson,  shouldering  his  musket,  had  answered  Dr.  Prescott's 
alarm,  and  under  Captain  Minot's  orders  he  climbed  the 
Mile-Long  Ridge  with  his  townsmen  and  the  men  of  Acton, 
of  Lincoln,  and  Carlisle,  to  the  Liberty-pole  and  looked  down 
on  his.  beloved  Meeting-house,  whence  the  Provincial  Con- 
gress with  John  Hancock  President  had  adjourned  four  days 
before,  and  where  five  weeks  previous  he  had  preached  to 
the  militia  from  this  text:  "And  behold  God  is  with  us  for 
our  Captain."  As  the  British  regulars  were  seen  advancing 
in  numbers  "more  than  treble  ours,"  Colonel  Barrett  or- 
dered the  militia  to  fall  back  to  Ponkawtasset  Hill.  The 
"fighting  parson"  x  returned  to  the  Manse  to  protect  his 
family  (it  has  been  said  that  he  was  locked  in  by  his  devoted 
parishioners  for  fear  that  he  might  be  injured  through 
patriotic  enthusiasm) ;  he  saw  acting  Adjutant  Hosmer 
form  the  companies,  and  Major  Buttrick  lead  down  to 
the  bridge,  the  captains  intrepidly  facing  the  British  on 
the  hither  side.2  "He  waited  in  an  agony  of  suspense  the 
rattle  of  the  musketry.  It  came;  and  there  needed  but  a 
gentle  wind  to  sweep  the  battle  smoke  about  the  quiet 
house." 

Captain  Isaac  Davis  of  Acton  was  the  first  to  fall.  Two 
of  the  British  invaders  lie  here  peacefully  by  the  stone  wall, 
the  musket  of  one  may  be  seen  in  the  valuable  collection 
from  "the  Six  Miles  Square  called  Concord  "  at  the  house  of 
the  Antiquarian  Society ;  also  the  first  cutlass  taken  in  the 

1  Parson  Emerson  asked  his  parish  to  excuse  him  that  he  might  go  to 
Ticonderoga  as  chaplain,  but  not  before  he  had  written  in  the  family 
almanac  under  April:  "This  month  remarkable  for  the  greatest  events  of 
the  present  age." — Concord,  First  in  Many  Fields,  by  Frank  B.  Sanborn; 
in  Historic  Towns  of  New  England,  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons. 

3  The  Concord  Fight,  by  Rev.  Grindall  Reynolds. 


Concord 


77 


Revolution, — that  of  Samuel  Lee, — and  the  sword  of  Colonel 
James  Barrett,  Commander.  At  Colonel  Barrett's,  two 
miles  distant  on  Barrett  Mills  Road,  the  cannon  had  been 
concealed  under  the  mr--  ,\ 

ploughed  furrows 
and  in  Spruce  Gut- 
ter; a  hundred  red- 
coats marched  out 
there  to  seek  them, 
and  these  "ene- 
mies" were  duti- 
fully fed  by  Mrs. 
Barrett. '  In  the 
general  excitement 
and  exodus  many 
odd  things  oc- 
curred. A  farmer's 
wife,  getting  ready 
to  take  her  children 
to  the  woods, 
donned  her  checked 
apron  *"of  state," 
for  she  never  did 
anything  of  impor- 
tance without  that 
badge  of  dignity. 
Unconsciously  she 
went  to  her  drawer 
for  an  apron  again 

and  again  until  when  she  recovered  her  wits  in  a  safe  hiding- 
place  she  found  she  had  on  seven  checked  aprons.  History 
repeated  itself  at  the  great  Chicago  fire,  when  a  lady  was 
seen  fleeing  with  four  bonnets  on. 

1  Mrs.   Lothrop's  story,  A   Little  Maid  of  Concord  Town,  contains  a 
charming  picture  of  the  Barrett  family. 


The  Old  North  Bridge  over  the  Concord  River. 

French's  statue  of  the  Minute-man  on  the 

other  side. 


78    Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

If  you  ride  into  Concord  over  Bedford  Road  by  shadowy 
Sleepy  Hollow,1  the  next  point  in  fascination  after  the  river 
spreading  broadly  blue  in  the  lowlands  is  the  Mile-Ridge,, 
the  water-shed  of  Mill  Brook.  From  nigh  the  elm,  a  co- 
lonial whipping-post,  rude  steps  pick  their  way  up  this, 
abrupt  hillside  between  gray  weather-beaten  stones,  mark- 
ing the  resting-place  of  Concord '  s  forefathers .  This  quaintly 
placed  bury  ing-ground  of  1668  was  always  included  in  the 
deed  of  the  house  at  its  foot  (the  John  Adams-Deacon  Tol- 
man  house)  until  1818. 

Tucked  under  the  Ridge  is  the  Hillside  Chapel  of  the  Con- 
cord School  of  Philosophy,  founded  by  Amos  Bronson  Alcott, 
"whose  orbit  never,  even  by  chance,  intersects  the  plane  of 
the  modern  earth,"  writes  Lowell,  and  by  Dr.  W.  F.  Harris, 
first  among  American  educators,  and  their  disciples.  Did 
transcendental  thought  simmer  through  these  murmuring 
pines  under  which  runs  the  tangled  path  where  Hawthorne 
delighted  to  walk,  unconsciously  following  the  footsteps  of 
the  aborigine  and  quite  oblivious  of  the  primitive  stone  tool 
at  his  feet,  which  Thoreau  could  not  have  passed  by,  be- 
cause, as  Hawthorne  said  of  his  friend's  characteristic  trait: 
"Thoreau  seldom  walks  over  a  ploughed  field  without  picking 
up  an  arrow-point  or  a  spear-head,  as  if  the  spirits  of  the  red 
men  willed  him  to  be  the  inheritor  of  their  simple  wealth  "? 
Doubtless  Hawthorne  paced  in  company  with  some  stern 
Puritan  of  the  day  of  the  Rev.  Peter  Bulkeley,  the  founder 
of  Concord,  who  left  Odell  or  "  Muddle"  on  the  river  Ouse, 
the  country  of  John  Bunyan  and  Cromwell,  only  to  en- 
counter dissension  at  Boston,  and  gladly  came  hither  to 
abide  by  the  river  of  peace.  Or  the  lengthening  shadows  of 

1  In  Sleepy  Hollow,  the  beautiful  rose-quartz  boulder  to  Emerson  is- 
on  the  Ridge  near  the  graves  of  Hawthorne,  Thoreau,  and  the  Alcotts. 
The  monument  to  Samuel  Hoar,  "that  walking  sincerity"  (Emerson's 
Journal) ,  and  those  to  others  of  this  family  of  statesmen,  are  below  the 
north  slope. 


8o    Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

dusk  took  shape  in  the  eyes  of  the  dreamer  in  the  form  of 
his  Majesty's  troops  sowing  dragons'  teeth,  which  sprang 
up  just  here  on  the  Ridge  as  armed  patriots.  From  "  The 
Wayside  "  below,  the  little  Alcotts  with  their  packs  climbed 
this  "Hill  Difficulty,"  seeking  the  "City  Celestial,"  and 
descried  a  beautiful  vision  beyond  the  Great  Fields  of  the 
town,  through  which  the  Sudbury  militia  ran  to  cut  off  the 
enemy  at  Merriam's  Corner;  some  of  the  Minute-men  pur- 
sued as  far  as  the  Bluff,  others  to  Charlestown  Ford.  Dr. 
Fiske  said  to  the  author  that  while  in  England  he  wrote  an 
account  of  the  Concord  fight,  but  only  when  he  actually  saw 
these  rocky  ledges  between  Concord  and  Lexington  did  he 
understand  the  whys  and  wherefores  of  the  unique  action. 

Past  the  home  of  Emerson,  built  on  square,  sincere,  and 
beautiful  lines,  runs  the  road  to  Walden  Pond, — "My  Gar- 
den," as  he  called  it, — and  Emerson  writes  of  swiftly  flying 
hours  passed  with  Thoreau,  "  of  oaken  strength  in  his  literary 
task,"  and  with  the  other  friends,"  many  of  whom  had  sought 
a  home  in  Concord  because  it  contained  Emerson.  Emerson 
said:  "Those  of  us  who  do  not  believe  in  communities  be- 
lieve in  neighborhoods,  and  that  the  Kingdom' 'of  Heaven 
may  consist  of  such."  Among  his  neighbors  were  Alcott, 
Channing,  Agassiz,  Margaret  Fuller,  and  Mrs.  Ripley,  who 
listened  over  her  pea-pods  to  the  men  of  letters  eagerly  seek- 
ing her  sympathy  and  inspiration ;  and  George  Minot,  Eliza- 
beth Peabody,  George  William  Curtis,  and  Elliott  Cabot. 
The  farmer  Edmund  Hosmer  was  an  especial  favorite, — a 
philosopher  who  donned  a  frock  instead  of  a  professor's 
gown,  solving  problems  of  church  and  state;  so  honest 
withal,  said  Emerson,  "  that  he  always  needed  to  be  watched 
lest  he  should  cheat  himself." 

When  James  Russell  Lowell  was  "  rusticated"  in  his  senior 
year  at  Concord  by  the  Harvard  Faculty  because  he  loved 
his  Beaumont  and  Fletcher  better  than  Locke  on  the  Human 


Concord 


81 


Understanding,  he  was  overcome  with  the  honor  of  being 
invited  by  Emerson  to  walk  with  him.  During  the  Revolu- 
tion, Annursuc  Hill  in  Concord  lodged  Harvard  College 


Hartwell  Homestead,  Lincoln. 

"  His  glittering  axe  subdued  the  monarch  oak  ; 
He  earned  the  cheerful  blaze  by  something  higher 
Than  pensioned  blows — he  owned  the  tree  he  stroke." 
Tribute  to  Hosmer,  "  the  spicy  farming  sage,"  by  ELLERY  CHA.NNING. 

whilst  Washington's  army  was  quartered  among  the  classic 
shades  of  Cambridge.  Thoreau  wrote  in  1847  to  Emerson, 
with  his  peculiar  emphasis,  "Cambridge  College  is  really 
beginning  to  overtake  the  age.  .  .  .  They  have  been 
foolish  enough  to  put  at  the  end  of  all  the  earnest  the  old 
joke  of  a  diploma.  Let  every  sheep  keep  its  own  skin,  I  say. " 

6 


82    Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

Many  historic  houses  are  standing  in  Concord,  though  the 
beautiful  first  Meeting-house  and  the  Hubbard  house  are 
sadly  missed.  The  Wright  Tavern  is  as  of  old  when  Pitcairn 
vowed  his  vow.  Opposite  the  Old  Manse  is  the  Elisha  Jones 
house  with  the  British  bullet  hole,  now  the  residence  of 
Judge  Keyes;  the  Major  Buttrick  house  and  "  Battle  Lawn"  ; 
the  Bull  house,  home  of  the  Concord  Grape,  the  three  Hoar 
houses,  and  the  Thoreau  house,  the  residence  of  F.  Alcott 
Pratt;  also  the  home  of  Frank  B.  Sanborn,  who  is  closely 
associated  with  the  halcyon  days  of  literary  Concord. 

The  charitable  Library  Society,  dating  back  to  1795,  be- 
came the  Concord  Social  Library,  and  is  now  included  in 
the  Concord  Public  Library,  the  gift  of  William  Munroe. 
One  marks  in  its  interesting  art  collection  a  bust  of  Miss 
Alcott,  by  F.  Edwin  El  well  of  Concord,  now  Curator  of 
Sculpture  in  the  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art. 

Who  would  not  wish  to  slide  round  through  a  quiet  back 
door  of  Concord  and  gain  admittance  to  the  warm  fireside 
and  the  table  loaded  with  wit  and  wisdom  which  she  sets 
forth!  From  this  feast  how  reluctantly  the  parting  guest 
turns  away,  quite  like  her  grass-grown  river,  of  which  Mr. 
Alcott  says,  "It  runs  slowly  because  it  hates  to  leave  Con- 
cord ' ' ! 


MEDFORD,  1630 

THE  "  Country  Heigh  Waye  "  through  Medford  town  to 
Boston  was  a  much  travelled  road,  as  we  know  from  the 
recorded  disputes  among  the  neighbor  towns  as  to  who 
should  pay  taxes  on  "  Mistick  "  (Cradock)  Bridge,  the  first 
toll-bridge  in  New  England.  Governor  Cradock l  never 
crossed  the  sea,  or  saw  Cradock  house,  which  his  men  en- 
closed with  palisades  for  his  future  deer-park. 

This  highway  skirting  Governor  Winthrop's  Ten-Hills 
Farm  between  Charlestown  and  Mistick  Ford  is  again  be- 
come a  way  of  great  travel  from  Boston  into  Old  Middlesex. 
The  traveller  on  the  little  journey  to  Lowell  in  the  Merrimack 
valley  by  the  old  Woburn  road  will  meet  all  the  charms  of 
rural  New  England,  particularly  in  the  "  Moon  of  Blossoms." 
So  thick  were  the  woods  hereabouts  between  the  Charles  and 
the  Mystic  rivers  that  Governor  Winthrop  lost  himself  near 
his  house,  and  took  refuge  in  the  friendly  hut  of  Sagamore 
John  on  College  Hill  (on  which  Tufts  College  stands) .  Win- 
throp's launching  of  the  Blessing  of  the  Bay  in  the  Mystic 
River  was  the  beginning  of  Medford's  noted  ship  industry. 

The  Governor's  "  Paradise,"  as  Winthrop  calls  it  in  his 
quaint,  pious  letters  to  his  wife,  was  sadly  devastated  during 
the  siege  of  Boston.  Here  General  Sullivan  planted  a  "  nine- 
pounder,"  and  sunk  the  floating  battery  on  the  Mystic, 
which  had  been  cannonading  his  breastworks  thrown  up  in  a 
night  on  Ploughed  Hill  (east  of  Broadway  at  Winter  Hill) . 

1  Charles  I.  created  Mathew  Cradock  Governor  of  the  Company  of 
Massachusetts  Bay.  Cradock's  coopers  and  shipwrights  came  in  his  ships 
Ambrose  and  Jewel  with  the  Arbella,  as  doubtless  came  the  first  settlers  of 
Medford  from  Suffolk  and  Essex. 

83 


84    Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

After  passing  Tufts  Square  the  Old  Powder  House  at 
Somerville  is  a  conspicuous  figure.  In  1720  it  ground  the 
colony's  corn;  in  1774  sheltered  its  powder  and  shot,  which 


Copyright  by  Chas.  B.  Webster. 

The  Royall  Mansion- House   (1738)    of  Provincial  Days,   with  Servants' 

Quarters. 

Sometime  headquarters  of  Colonel  John  Stark,  General  Lee,  and  General 
Sullivan.     "Hobgoblin  Hall." 

General  Gage  determined  to  carry  off  to  the  Castle.  His 
troops  embarked  from  Long  Wharf,  landed  at  Temple  Farm, 
and  seized  two  hundred  and  fifty  half -barrels  of  gunpowder. 
The  tablet *  placed  by  the  Massachusetts  Society  of  the 
Sons  of  the  Revolution  sets  forth  the  sequel:  "And  thereby 

1  An  interesting  sketch  of  the  work  of  the  Massachusetts  Sons  of  the 
Revolution,  by  Walter  Oilman  Page  of  the  Tablet  Committee,  is  included 
in  the  Register  of  the  Society,  1899. 


Medford  85 

provoked  the  great  assembly  of  the  following  day  on  Cambridge 
Common.  The  first  occasion  on  which  our  patriotic  fore- 
fathers met  in  arms  to  oppose  the  tyranny  of  George  III." 

The  story  of  Colonel  Roy  all's  mansion-house  '  (George 
Street)  is  as  long  as  his  acres ;  its  paved  courtyard  and  ser- 
vants' quarters  betoken  the  splendid  state  of  Isaac  Royall 
2nd,  the  generous-hearted  Tory,  member  of  the  Governor's 
Council.  In  magnificent  style,  Colonel  Royall  dined  the 
Vassalls,  Olivers,  Sir  Harry  Frankland,  and  other  Tory 
friends,  toasting  the  King's  cause  in  rich  "  Madeira,"  till  the 
Sunday  before  the  battle  of  Lexington,  when,  arming  him- 
self with  a  pair  of  pistols  and  a  carabin,  he  hurried  off  in  his 
coach  to  Boston,  thence  to  Halifax,  and  died  in  England, 
bequeathing  2000  acres  to  Harvard.  The  Royall  Professor- 
ship of  Law  is  the  foundation  of  the  Harvard  Law  School. 
A  daughter  married  William  Pepperell  Sparhawke,  who  suc- 
ceeded to  Sir  William's  estate  and  name.  In  the  Records 
of  the  "third  Meeting-house"  (its  bell  struck  twelve  for 
Paul  Revere)  is  written:  "July  28,  1771.  On  this  day  was 
used  the  pulpit  cushion  given  by  Wm.  Pepperell,  who  im- 
ported it  from  England  at  a  cost  of  eleven  guineas." 

The  Butters  and  Wait  houses  face  the  "  Heigh  Waye  " 
which  passes  over  Cradock  Bridge  (tablet  to  Mrs.  Sarah 
Bradlee  Fulton,  "a  Heroine  of  the  Revolution,"  erected  by 
the  Sarah  Bradlee  Fulton  Chapter,  D.  A.  R.)  into  Medford 
Square. 

Directly  before  you  is  Forest  Street  (the  old  Andover 
turnpike  through  Stoneham),  which  leads  into  the  lovely 
Middlesex  Fells  by  the  ancient  Kidder  Place  and  Pine  Hill. 
Spot  Pond  was  discovered  by  "the  Governor,  Mr.  Nowell 
and  Mr.  Eliot,"  and  named  for  "the  divers  small  rocks  stand- 
ing up  here  and  there  in  it.  They  went  all  about  it  on  the 

1  From  the  Royall  mansion  it  is  a  pleasant  half-hour's  walk  by  Medford's 
landmarks  as  far  as  Grace  Church. 


86    Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

ice."  A  very  high  rock  N.  W.  "they  called  Cheese  Rock,  be- 
cause, when  they  went  to  eat  somewhat,  they  had  only 
cheese  the  Governor's  man  forgetting,  for  haste,  to  put  up 
some  bread."  (February  7,  1632).  On  Riverdale  Avenue 
(Ship  Street)  is  the  Cradock  house  (fifteen  minutes'  walk), 
passing  the  Greenleaf  house.  On  Salem  street  (the  Maiden 
road)  is  the  burying-ground ;  the  birthplace  of  Lydia 
Maria  Child.1  Here  is  the  Medford  Historical  Society 
Rooms  and  Collection,  with  models  of  Medford  ships.  In 
the  Withington  house  next  door  lived  Marm  Betty,  who 
kept  a  dame  school,  and  was  the  envied  possessor  of  "some 
flowered  bed-curtains."  The  greatest  cross  of  Marm 
Betty's  life  was  that  Governor  Brooks  saw  her  drinking 
from  the  spout  of  her  tea-pot.  Mrs.  Child  paid  Marm  Betty 
many  a  neighborly  visit ;  she  was  indeed  so  benevolent  as  to 
deprive  herself  of  every  comfort  that  she  might  give  more  to 
some  good  cause.  Mrs.  Fields  relates  that  at  eighty  years  she 
sought  in  Boston  the  plainest  lodgings ;  her  one  pleasure  was 
in  seeing  her  friends.  Whittier  was  "an  intimate  personal 
friend  from  the  earliest  days  of  the  anti-slavery  struggle," 
and  at  the  houses  of  mutual  cronies  they  would  sit  side  by 
side,  reminisce  and  "make  merry.  '  It  was  good  to  see  Mrs. 
Child.'  '  Yes,'  said  Whittier,  '  Lyddy's  bunnets  are  n't  always 
in  the  fashion '  (with  a  quaint  look  as  much  as  to  say,  '  I 
wonder  what  you  think  of  anything  so  bad'), '  but  we  don't 
like  her  any  the  worse  for  that.' "  2 

Turning  to  the  left  from  the  square  (following  the  Win- 
chester car)  is  the  brick  Secomb  house  (1756);  the  old 
Wade  "  Garrison  "  house  (163-)  of  Pasture  Hill  Lane ;  the  Ar- 
mory built  by  General  Lawrence.  The  handsome  building 
of  the  Medford  Public  Library  was  the  house  of  Thatcher 
Magoun  2nd,  the  shipbuilder.  He  built  it  as  much  like  a 

1  Lydia  Maria  Child,  by  Anna  D.  Hallowell,  in  the  Medford  Historical 
Register  of  July,  1900. 

2  Authors  and  Friends,  Annie  Fields. 


Medford  87 

ship  as  possible,  with  high-studded  front  rooms  for  his  wife 
and  the  other  rooms  after  the  fashion  of  a  ship's  cabins. 
The  Library  contains  an  ideal  children's  reading-room.  In 
its  Historical  Collection  is  a  letter  from  Washington  to 


The  Cradock  House  (1634) ,  or  "  Tlie  Fort."     On  Riverside  Avenue,  the  old 
Ship  Street,  Medford.      Property  of  General  Samuel  C.  Lawrence. 

Governor  Brooks;  the  Diary  of  Dr.  David  Osgood,  whose 
ministry  began  with  the  "revolutionary  earthquake"  ;  and 
two  curious  china  cats  over  two  hundred  years  old,  the  play- 
things of  Miss  Lucy  Osgood.  The  Osgood  house  is  above 
the  Unitarian  Church,  also  the  Jonathan  Watson-Samuel 
Swan  house  (1750),  where  General  Brooks  entertained  Wash- 
ington. The  Train  house  is  next ;  Grace  Church  of  Richard- 
son design  stands  on  the  site  of  the  Timothy  Bigelow 
mansion-house.  Paul  Revere  called  up  the  captain  of  the 
Minute-men  at  the  Porter  house,  Ram's  Head  Lane,  now 
Rural  Avenue,  leading  to  the  "  Lawrence"  Tower. 

Medford's  "fat  black  earth,"   of  which  Mr.   Higginson 


88 


Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 


speaks,  according  to  the  old  saying,  was  ready  for  seed 
"when  the  white  oak-leaves  look  goslin-gray.  Plant  then,  be  it 
April,  June,  or  May."  The  farmers'  harvest  list  in  Brooks' 
history  of  rare  anecdote  runs : 

1646  Aug.  i.  The  great  pears  ripe. 

3.  The  long  apples  ripe. 
12.  Blackstone's  apples  gathered. 

1647  July  5.  We  began  to  shear  rye. 

The  car  passes  the  ancient  Symmes  Corner  (1638)  and  site 
of  the  Black  Horse  Tavern,  over  the  old  Woburn  road 
through  Winchester,  once  South  Woburn.  A  charming 
place  is  this  "town  of  lawyers,"  very  rich  in  water  land- 
scape: Wedge  Pond,  Winter  Pond,  and  "Big  Mystic"  sup- 
plied by  the  lovely  Aberjona  River. 

THE  country  mansion-house  of  Edward  Everett  on  Mystic 
Pond,1  entertained  many  men  of  many  climes.  On  the 
Everett  estate  in  1638  was  the  royal  house  of  the  Squaw 
Sachem  Queen  of  Nanepashemet,  killed  by  the  Taratines  in 
1619.  Many  of  her  deeds  of  land  are  on  record.  In  1621, 
when  Edward  Winslow  and  the  Plymouth  people  went  up 
to  see  the  Sachem  of  Boston,  Winslow  writes  of  seeing  at 
Mystic  the  house  of  this  King,  "not  like  others,  but  on  a 
scaffold."  And  a  fort  seated  upon  top  of  a  hill,  "of  poles 
some  thirty  or  forty  feet  long,  stuck  in  the  ground,  as  thick 
as  they  could  be  set  one  by  another, ' '  a  trench  digged  about ; 
"one  way  was  there  to  get  into  it  with  a  bridge."  In  this 
palisade  stood  a  house  wherein  Nanepashemet  lay  buried. 
The  Clock-Tower  tells  how  many  times  Winchester  has 
changed  her  name.2  In  the  Library  is  the  painting — Coast 
of  Normandy — by  J.  Foxcroft  Cole,  a  sometime  resident  of 

1  Cambridge  Street. 

2  History  of  Winchester,  by  Abijah  Thompson,  Winchester  Press. 


Winchester  89 

Winchester.  The  room  of  the  Historical  and  Genealogical 
Society  contains  a  memorial  to  Edward  Converse,  pioneer 
and  builder  of  the  first  house  and  mill.  Among  the  resi- 
dences in  beautiful  "  Rangely  "  is  that  of  Edwin  Ginn,  owner 
of  the  Park. 


Entrance  to  the  Brooks  Estate,  Winchester. 

In  Wakefield,  Stoneham,  Melrose,  and  especially  in  Mai- 
den ("  Mistick  Side"),  the  student  of  bygone  days  will  find 
an  interesting  field.  Wakefield,  the  old  parish  of  Reading, 
is  adorned  by  Crystal  Lake  and  Lake  Quanapowitt,  the  In- 
dian "Great  Pond,"  about  which  many  stone  tools  have 
been  picked  up.  John  Poole's  water-mill  of  1644  stood  on 
the  site  of  the  Rattan  Works.  Crystal  Lake  and  Lake 
Quanapowitt  adorn  the  town.  Maiden  has  an  unusually 
fine  park, — Pine  Bank,  arranged  and  beautified  for  the 
people  of  Maiden  by  the  Hon.  E.  H.  Converse. 


WOBURN,  1630-1642 

THE  antiquarian  so  inclined  may  spend  an  hour,  an  after- 
noon, or  a  day  most  profitably  in  Woburn.  In  Woburn 
Square  the  historical  sites  are  admirably  tableted.  The 
Soldiers'  Monument,  stands  as  formerly  did  the  first  Meet- 
ing-house, near  the  market-place.  Within  the  handsome 


The  Woburn  Public  Library.      Richardson,  architect. 
Founded  by  Jonathan  B.  Winn  and  Charles  B.  Winn. 

Winn  Library,  designed  by  Richardson,  genealogists  revel  in 
colonial  and  revolutionary  archives,  exhaustively  indexed 

90 


Woburn 


WOBURN 

LANDMARKS:  Woburn  Public  Li- 
brary. Site  house  Rev.  Thomas 
Carter  (1642),  23  Pleasant  St., 
residence  Charles  Taylor.  Site 

Fowle  Tavern,  442  Main;  here  Min- 
ute-men met.  Daniel  Thompson 
house,  649  Main;  "  slain  at  Concord 
Battle,"  residence  Mrs.  M.  A.  Briggs. 
Supplementary:  Legends  of  Wo- 
burn, 1642-1692.  Ellis's  Life  of 
Kumford.  Cutter's  sketch  of  Wo- 
burn under  Winchester  in  Kurd's 
Middlesex  County. 


under  the  direction  of  the  local  historian,  W.  R.  Cutter. 
Its  attractive  Art  Gallery  contains  an  interesting  paint- 
ing, The  Ordination  of  Thomas 
Carter  in  1642,  first  pastor  of  this 
little  settlement,  then  known  as 
Chariest  own  Village.  That  curious 
and  oft-quoted  narrative,  The 
Wonder  Working  Providence  of 
Zioris  Saviour  in  New  England 
(from  1628  to  1652),  was  written 
by  Captain  Edward  Johnson,  some- 
times called  "The  Father  of  Wo- 
burn," and  one  of  Winthrop's  Company.  A  quaintly 
written  letter  from  Woburn  in  1804,  by  a  young  girl,  reads: 

Papa  and  Cyrus  are  busy  planting,  mamma  takes  care 
of  the  family  cards.1  Mary  weaves,  Emily  spins,  Abigail 
winds  quills.  Our  meeting-house  is  almost  done;  I  hope 
you  will  come  to  the  dedication.  We  have  had  an  ordina- 
tion, dedication,  and  installation  this  winter,  and  did  real 
piety  keep  pace  with  party  spirit,  we  should  indeed  be  an 
exemplary  people,  but  there  is  as  much  division  as  ever. 

1  The  carding  of  wool  was  one  of  the  oldest  traditional  occupations  of 
a  Roman  lady,  held  in  great  estimation  as  late  as  the  beginning  of  the 
Empire.  The  highest  praise  bestowed  on  the  mother  of  the  family  was 
"  She  stayed  at  home  to  card  the  wool." 


NORTH  WOBURN 

THE  stateliest  of  the  fine  old-fashioned  houses  of  "New 
Bridge,"  or  North  Woburn,  is  the  Baldwin  mansion.  Above 
the  delicately  moulded  colonial  doorway,  linden-tree  arched, 
a  mullioned  window  gleams  warmly  iridescent  under  the 
touch  of  old  Father  Time.  From  its  white  fluted  niche 
on  the  stairs  a  shining  mahogany  clock  solemnly  ticks  away 
the  centuries  in  lofty  measure,  talking  over  the  happenings 
within  these  panelled  walls  with  its  lettered  companion, 
the  collection  of  rare  tomes  found  in  the  Long  Room. 

The  twin  lindens,  of  a  younger  growth  than  the  elms, 
were  dispatched  across  the  wide  Atlantic  to  Loammi  Bald- 
win by  his  friend  Count  Rumford,  born  plain  Benjamin 
Thompson,  whose  notable  career  of  rare  interest  on  two 
continents  began  in  the  primitive  dwelling  just  a  little 
way  up  the  road.  Its  closing  chapter  at  Auteuil  saw  our 
many-sided  philosopher  of  purely  Yankee  origin  (who,  by 
the  way,  had  sided  with  the  Tories,  which,  strange  to  state, 
had  never  entirely  lost  him  the  affection  of  his  countrymen) 
a  Knight  of  the  Order  of  St.  Stanislaus  and  the  White  Eagle, 
a  Count  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire,  a  Lieutenant-Gen- 
eral  of  Bavaria,  and  a  Fellow  of  the  French  Institute. 

More  than  a  hundred  and  thirty  years  ago,  on  the  old 
Woburn  Highway,  had  you  belonged  to  the  rural  wit  and 
beaux  of  the  precinct  you  might  have  met  and  exchanged 
glances  with  the  youths  Baldwin  and  Thompson  striding 
home  from  Cambridge,  both  evolving  schemes  in  daring 
suppositions  for  experiment  suggested  by  their  last  lesson  in 
the  science  of  causes  as  expounded  by  the  colonial  teacher. 

Tradition  names  a  particular  bad  quarter  of  an  hour  when 

92 


North  Woburn 


93 


young  Baldwin  was  discovered  by  his  family  flying  a  silk 
kite  in  a  severe  thunder-storm,  apparently  enveloped  in 
flames.  The  fact  that  glass  bottles 
supported  his  rude  platform  ap- 
peased but  little  the  consternation 
of  the  appalled  lookers-on.  Colonel 
Baldwin  crossed  the  ice-bound 
Delaware  with  Washington  and  led 
to  the  battle  of  Trenton  the  26th 
Massachusetts,  one  battalion  hav- 
ing 1 6  officers  and  190  men.  Sur- 
veying one  day  for  the  Middlesex 
Canal  near  "  Butters  Row."  in  Wil- 
mington, Colonel  Baldwin  was  attracted  by  woodpeckers 


NORTH  WOBURW 

LANDMARKS:  James  Bald  win  house, 
(177-)  residence  Baldwin  Coolidge. 
Baldwin  mansion  (1661),  property 
of  Mrs.  C.  Rumford  Griffith.  Josiah 
Bartlett-Wheeler  house,  here  was 
held  centennial  ball.  Thompson- 
Nichols-  Winn  house  (1769),  resi- 
dence Mrs.  Ruel  Carter.  William 
Tidd  house.  Home  for  Aged  Women, 
Cleveland  Homelands.  Birthplace  of 
Count  Rumford,  1781.  Tay-Nichols 
house.  Lilley-Eaton  house.  Deacon 
Samuel  Eames  house  (1730),  New 
Boston  St. 


The  Baldwin  Homestead,  North  Woburn.     Built  1661. 
Property  of  Mrs.  C.  Rumford  Griffith.    Residence  of  Loammi  Baldwin 

the  fourth. 


94    Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

drilling  circles  about  the  trunk  of  a  tree,  red  with  apples. 
He  set  a  dish  of  the  delectable  fruit  before  his  guests  at  din- 
ner. "What  is  the  name,  Colonel?"  "It  is  an  unknown 
species  hereabouts,"  answered  their  host.  "Then  a  toast 
to  the  Baldwin  apple!" 

The  centennial  jubilee  ball,  given  by  this  Colonel  Baldwin 
in  the  house  opposite,  was  long  the  talk  of  old  Middlesex  at 
seasons'  quiltings;  especially  was  remarked  the  marvellous 
transformation  of  the  figures  1799  traced  by  colored  wick 
lights  into  1800,  at  the  turning  of  the  hour-glass  for  the  new 
year.  The  pretty  schoolmistress  imparted  her  impressions 
of  The  Ball  in  a  dozen  verses : 

"  On  New  Year's  eve  at  Baldwin's  Hall 
Was  held  a  great  and  splendid  Ball; 
Hand  in  hand  the  blooming  pairs 
Marched  to  the  house  and  walked  up-stairs. 

"  The  waiters  round  with  salver  bend 
And  dealt  to  all,  for  all  were  friends, 
No  spare  of  cake  or  wine  or  tea ; 
The  generous  donor  made  it  free." 


WILMINGTON,  1642-1730 
TEWKSBURY,  1655-1734 

IN  ancient  Wilmington  you  journey  past  Squaw  Pond  and 
the  aforetime  famous  "  Ox  Bow  "  of  the  old  Middlesex  Canal. 
Near  Wilmington  Depot  appears  the  Tim  Carter  house,  per- 
haps the  oldest  in  the  town.  On  the  Boston  Road  to  Tewks- 
bury,  circled  by  summer  cottages,  is  the  translucent  Silver 
Lake  or  Sandy  Pond  of  unsoundable  depth  in  parts.  Here 
was  an  immense  lake,  its  adjoining  "Great  Sandy  Desert" 
having  been  pushed  in  during  the  glacial  period.  The 
earliest  localities  of  Wilmington  were  named  Goshen,  Nod, 
Lebanon,  Ladder-Pole,  and  Maple-Meadow  Brook.  Wil- 
mington at  one  period  was  nicknamed  "  Hop-town,"  be- 
cause every  farmer  owned  a  flourishing  hop-yard. 

Beyond  the  "  Rich"  Carter  house  is  "bound-stone"  farm. 
Crossing  the  Shawshine  River,  in  a  wayside  cemetery,  lies 
buried  "Life"  Manning,  Washington's  bodyguard.  The 
John  Bridges  farm  is  made  picturesque  by  an  elm  of  multi- 
tudinous branches.  These  Tewksbury  farms  are  fine  mar- 
ket gardens.  The  State  Almshouse  seems  to  be  a  little 
town  in  itself. 

At  the  entrance  of  the  pleasant  village  of  Tewksbury  Cen- 
tre stands  the  Kittredge  homestead,  in  the  bend  of  the  East 
Billerica  road.  On  Main  Street  we  come  upon  the  Rev. 
Samson  Spaulding  homestead  (1737)  and  the  Rev.  Jacob 
Coggin  house,  the  residence  of  H.-M.  Billings.  No  one 
leaves  Tewksbury  town  without  a  draught  from  the  famous 
well  on  the  green.  When  Tewksbury  was  Billerica  this  re- 
gion suffered  from  Indian  raids.  Before  stealing  away  from 

<J5 


96    Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

the  scene  of  destruction  the  savage  was  wont  to  strap  his 
dog's  mouth  with  wampum  lest  the  cur's  bark  should  disturb 
the  midnight  silence  and  thus  proclaim  the  direction  of  his 
retreat. 


"  Little  streams  are  light  and  shadow 
Flowing  through  the  pasture  meadow, 
Flowing  by  the  green  wayside, 
Through  the  forest  dim  and  wide." — MARY  HOWITT. 


LOWELL,  1655-1826 

"  I  listen,  awake,  for  the  city's  hum, 
A  faint  little  threadlet  of  far-off  sound, 
Growing  ever  confused  like  a  skein  unwound, 
By  heedless  fingers,  wherein  I  hear 
The  voices  of  myriad  work-folk  dear, 
Who  make  earth  the  sheltering  home  that  it  is, 
With  their  beautiful  manifold  industries." 

LUCY  LARCOM. 

THE  hamlet  of  Wamesit,  the  praying  town  of  the  Paw- 
tucket  tribe,  once  extended  over  the  great  neck  of  land 
"where  Concord  river  falleth  into  Merrimak  river."  No 
one  can  tell  for  how  many  successive  moons  of  May  the 
tribes  had  resorted  to  these  falling  waters  for  salmon,  shad, 
and  sturgeon  before  the  Apostle  Eliot  followed  them,  "to 
spread  the  net  of  the  Gospel  to  fish  for  their  souls."  x 

Over  the  red  man's  ancient  capital-seat  rise  spires  and 
smoking  chimneys ;  the  noon-hour  bells  of  the  ' '  Spindle 
City,"  speaking  to  hu'i-ying  thousands,  witness  that  all  the 
wiles  of  the  sorcerer  Passaconaway,  Chief  Sachem  of  Pen- 
nacook,  stayed  not  the  "  increase"  of  the  white  man,  though 
by  Indian  legend  he  caused  "  the  green  leaf  to  grow  in  winter, 
the  tree  to  dance,  and  the  water  to  burn." 

Fort  Hill  was  palisaded  by  Wannalancet,  son  of  Passa- 
conaway, to  defend  his  people  against  the  Mohawk's  arrow. 
His  wigwam  stood  on  the  estate  of  Frederick  Ayer,  near 
Pawtucket  Falls.  By  the  singing  waters,  in  picture  lan- 
guage, he  said  to  his  white  brothers — the  Apostle  Eliot, 
General  Gookin,  Mr.  Richard  Daniel  of  Billerikey,  and  other 

1  "And  from  Massic  Island,  where  Stott's  Mills  now  stand,  told  his 
dusky  listeners  of  their  great  Father." — TIte  Lowell  Book. 

97 


98    Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

Englishmen  of  quality:    "All  my  days  I  have  been  used  to 
pass  in  an  old  canoe,  but  now  I  yield  myself  to  your  advice, 

and  enter  into  a  new  canoe,  and  do 
engage  to  pray  to  God  hereafter." 


LOWELL 


LANDMARKS  :  City  Government 
Building.  Memorial  Building,  con- 
taining Free  Public  Library  of  62,000 
volumes,  and  Memorial  Hall.  Monu- 
ment Square.  Ladd  and  Whitney 
Monument.  Statue  of  Victory,  gift 
of  Dr.  J.  C.  Ayer.  Unveiled  July  4, 
1867.  Lowell  visited  by  Presidents 
Tyler,  Polk,  Jackson,  Lincoln,  and 
Roosevelt  ;  by  General  Grant,  Je- 
rome Buonaparte  and  Princess  Clo- 
tilde,  Louis  Kossuth,  Charles  Dick- 
ens, Wm.  Lloyd  Garrison.  The  Ar- 
mory M.  V.  M.  Tappan  Wentworth 
house,  Lawrence  St.  Durkee 
house,  (1704).  Pawtucket  Boulevard, 
Joel  Spalding  Homestead,  Pawtucket 
St.  Balch  &  Coburn's  Tavern,  or 
the  "Old  Stone  House";  first  town 
meeting  held  here.  Kirk  Boott 
Moderator.  First  School  Committee, 
—Theodore  Edson,  Warren  Colburn. 
Samuel  Batchelder,  John  O.  Greene 
Elisha  Huntington,  father  of  Wm.  R. 
Huntington,  D.D.  ;  here  First  Uni- 
tarian Church  organized  1829  ;  en- 
larged for  J.  C.  Ayer  mansion.  Now 
the  Ayer  Home,  endowed  by  Mrs. 
Ayer  and  Frederick  Fanning  Ayer. 
Old  Ladies'  Home,  Fletcher  St  Old 
Marshall  Tavern,  Parker  St.  Liv- 
ingston and  French  homesteads, 
Westford  St.  Fort  Hill  Park,  from 
which  may  be  seen  Minot's  Light. 
Supplementary  :  Cowley's  History 


A    Stranger    in    Lowell,    by 
A    New  England    Girlhood, 


of  Lowell 
Whittier. 

by  Lucy  Larcom.  Loom  and  Shuttle, 
by  Harriett  Robinson.  Lowell,  by 
Mabel  Hill,  New  England  Magazine, 
Merrimac  River  at  the  Junction  of  the 
Concord  with  its  Waters,  by  Jane  E. 
Locke  of  Lowell.  "  Inscribed  to 
the  Hon.  Caleb  Gushing,  by  whose 
request  it  was  written." 


The  Pawtuckets  sold  their  grant 
to  Colonel  Tyng  and  Major 
Henchman ;  a  map  of  1821  out- 
lines Sundry  Farms  of  Pawtucket 
in  the  Town  of  Chelmsford,1  which 
were  bought  up  by  the  Proprie- 
tors of  the  Locks  and  Canals. 
Kirk  Boott  was  sent  to  prospect 
the  river's  mechanical  force, 
pointed  out  by  Ezra  Worthen, 
and  while  apparently  casting  a 
fly  for  salmon  appraised  these 
valuable  fishing  rights.  The 
young  English  officer  was,  how- 
ever, worsted  in  his  first  bargain 
by  a  Yankee  farmer,  who  doubled 
the  price  of  his  farm  over  night, 
"as  I  calk'lated  su'thin'  was  in 


1  The  Fletcher,  Cheever,  and  Whiting 
farms  occupied  the  present  heart  of  Lowell. 
On  the  Nathan  Tyler  farm  stand  the  Merri- 
mack  Mills  of  1822,  the  Carpet  Mills,  and 
Ayer  Laboratory.  Little  Canada  occupies 
the  Robert  Brinley  farm,  and  Ayer's  City 
the  Joshua  Swan  Meadows.  Middlesex 
Mills  stand  on  the  site  of  the  manufactory 
of  Captain  Phineas  Whiting  and  Colonel 
Josiah  Fletcher;  at  the  raising,  in  1813, 
took  place  a  wrestling  match,  the  favorite 
amusement  of  Dracut  men  at  ordinations 
and  Four  Day  Meetings.  Their  strength 

and  litheness  were  facetiously  said  to  be  due  to  their  being  raised  on 

lamprey  eels. 


The  Mills  of  Lowell  99 

the  wind  when  I  saw  two  strangers  across  the  river  sit  on 
a  rock  and  talk,  then  one  feller  go  up  and  the  other  daown, 
an'  talk  ag'in."  The  Kirk  Boott  mansion,  now  the  Cor- 
poration Hospital,  stands  near  the  Moody  Street  Bridge. 
Paul  Moody's  inventions  followed  fast  after  the  first  power- 
loom  was  set  up  by  Francis  Cabot  Lowell, — the  inspirator 
of  cotton  manufacture, — for  whom  the  city  was  named. 
Early  expedient  called  on  the  aid  of  the  sun  for  bleaching, 
and  the  overseer's  wife  sprinkled  with  her  watering-pot  large 
areas  of  cotton  cloth  pinned  to  the  grass. 

That  remarkable  feat  of  engineering,  the  Northern  Canal, 
was  the  thought  of  James  B.  Francis,  later  President  of  the 
American  School  of  Engineers.  The  cynics  called  his  Guard 
Locks,  built  on  the  Pawtucket  Canal,  "  Francis's  Folly,"  till 
after  one  fateful  night  in  1852,  when  the  water  rising  four- 
teen feet  above  the  dam  would  have  flooded  the  lowlands, 
carrying  off  the  Appleton  and  Hamilton  mills,  had  his  port- 
cullis not  been  let  fall  at  the  crucial  moment.  The  Merri- 
mack  has  never  again  attained  that  height.  If  you  stand 
on  the  picturesque  Canal  Walk  late  in  February — between 
the  foaming  canal  forced  out  of  its  usual  serenity  into  a  boil- 
ing cauldron,  and  a  maddened  whirl  of  waters  tossing  ice- 
floes like  snowflakes — you  cannot  but  marvel  that  the  wild 
course  of  these  myriad  streams  hastening  from  the  snow- 
covered.  New  Hampshire  hills  to  the  Atlantic  may  be 
diverted  by  man's  invention. 

THE    MILLS    OF    LOWELL 

The  merry  comrades  of  Lucy  Larcom,  daughters  of  min- 
isters and  backwoodsmen  who  had  broken  out  the  primeval 
forest  threaded  by  treacherous  Indian  trails  from  the  Can- 
adian frontier,  reflected  the  purity  and  vigor  of  these  New 
Hampshire  hills.  You  fancy  that  you  can  see  these  Yankee 
girls  in  the  spinning-room,  Lucy  Larcom  committing  to 


ioo  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

memory  the  poets  from  slips  of  paper  pasted  on  the  walls  to 
the  music  of  the  shuttle,  and  after  the  day's  work  guessing 
the  authors  of  the  anonymous  contributions  to  their  little 
journal,  the  Lowell  Offering.  Later  they  found  vocations  in 
literature,  art,  or  in  marrying  New  England  merchants  and 
mill-owners.  The  looms  were  next  watched  by  the  witty 
Irish  lassies,  followed  in  turn  by  the  dark-eyed  graceful 


"  The  gray  stone  walls  of  St.  Anne's  Church  and  rectory  made  a  pictur- 
esque spot  in  the  town,  a  lasting  monument  to  the  religious  purpose  which 
animated  tlte  first  manufacturers.  I  had  never  before  seen  anything  but 
a  plain  frame  meeting-house,  and  the  church  and  the  benign,  apostolic-look- 
ing rector  were  like  a  leaf  out  of  an  English  story-book." — LUCY  LARCOM. 

French-Canadian  girls  who  are  marrying  into  the  Greek 
colony.  The  French  of  Louis  XIV.  is  heard  on  the  streets, 
and  Le  Jour  de  L'An  is  the  chief  festival-day  of  Le  Petit 
Canada  in  Lowell,  kept  with  all  the  dear  traditions  of  the 
home  parish  in  the  province  of  Quebec.  These  national- 
ities, as  well  as  the  Portuguese  and  Armenians,  have  their 
churches  and  schools  in  cosmopolitan  Lowell. 

Lowell's  exports  are  not  entirely  from  the  loom;  there 


The  Mills  of  Lowell  101 

are  many  factories  devoted  to  proprietary  medicine,  fancy 
leather,  wire  goods,  machines,  and  in  almost  every  depart- 
ment of  mechanics.  The  city  has  made  distinct  strides  re- 
cently in  education  through  the  State  Normal  School,  with 
the  Bartlett  Practice  School,  the  Lowell  Textile  School,  and 
the  Training  School.  The  invaluable  "Summer  Play- 
Ground"  has  been  introduced  through  the  Middlesex 
Women's  Club. 

Lowell  offers  splendid  opportunities  for  out-of-door  pleas- 
ures. The  golf  course  of  the  Vesper  Country  Club  at  Tyng's 
Island  is  one  of  the  oldest  and  most  beautiful  in  New  Eng- 
land. At  the  perfectly  equipped  Vesper  Boat-house  have 
originated,  under  a  peculiarly  efficient  management,  many 
events  in  the  sporting  annals  of  Massachusetts. 

The  American  Canoe  Association  has  a  camping-ground 
on  the  lovely  inland  water,  Tyng's  Pond,  or  Lake  Mascuppic, 
whose  most  ancient  settlement,  Willow  Dale,  has  for  gen- 
erations been  famous  for  "basket  picnics,"  and  the  queer 
modern  statuary  guarding  the  lovely  grove.  The  summer 
amusements  at  Lakeview  Park  are  changed  in  winter  to  the 
ice  sports  of  hockey  and  polo  on  skates.  From  Lakeview, 
travelling  northward  through  the  pines,  you  arrive  shortly 
at  Nashua  on  the  Merrimack. 

BELVIDERE 

"Belvidere,"  the  mansion1  of  Judge  St.  Loe  Livermore, — 
previously  the  "Gedney"  or  the  "Old  Yellow  House, "- 

1  A  part  of  the  house  stands  next  St.  John's  Hospital.  "It  is  beauti- 
fully situated  at  the  confluence  of  the  Merrimack  and  Concord  rivers." 
writes  the  daughter  of  Judge  Livermore,  the  wife  of  Judge  J.  G.  Abbott, 
whose  son,  Captain  Edward  G.  Abbott,  fell  at  Cedar  Mountain — leading 
the  "Abbott  Greys"  of  Lowell.  Major  Henry  Livermore  Abbott  fell  at 
the  battle  of  the  Wilderness.  Judge  Livermore's  daughter  Harriett  was 
the  "woman  tropical,  intense"  of  Whittier's  Snow- Bound.  The  long 
military  record  of  Lowell  and  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic  is  included 
in  the  sketch  of  Lowell  by  C.  C.  Chase  in  Kurd's  Middlesex  County. 


Art  in  Lowell  103 

gave  its  name  to  a  large  part  of  the  3ooo-acre  grant  to  Ma- 
dame Winthrop  in  1649,  which  may  be  seen  in  fairest  pros- 
pect from  Fairmount  Hill.  Below,  lies  the  city,  in  the  heart 
of  the  Merrimack  valley ;  the  Concord,  another  Avon,  creeps 
under  a  score  of  bridges  to  meet  the  greater  river  of  widely 
differing  beauties.  The  horizon  is  broken  by  Robin's  Hill, 
distant  Wachusett,  the  Peterborough,  Temple  Hills,  and  Un- 
canoonucs.  Monadoc,  the  lonely  peak,  "rock-ridged,"  has 
been  translated  to  our  hearth-stones  by  the  brush  of  William 
P.  Phelps  and  the  exquisite  lines  of  James  E.  Nesmith. 

"  All  day  the  purple  shadows  dream 
Along  his  slopes  or  upward  stream, 
And  shafts  of  golden  sunlight  gleam. 

"  The    curled  cups  of  the  gentian  catch 
The  eye  with  hues  the  heavens  match, 
Tho'  Winter's  hand  is  on  the  latch." 

The  suburb  of  Belvidere  was  founded  by  John  Nesmith, 
Lieutenant-Go  vernor  under  "War"  Governor  Andrew,  and 
Colonel  Thomas  Nesmith.  The  Nesmith  mansion  enter- 
tained Wendell  Phillips,  Charles  Sumner,  Vice- President 
Henry  Wilson,  Parson  Brownlow,  and  other  distinguished 
guests.  Near  by  is  the  Governor  Frederick  T.  Greenhalge 
house  and  that  of  Hon.  John  A.  Goodwin,  author  of  The 
Pilgrim  Republic.  Lowell  is  the  birthplace  of  Charles  H. 
Allen,  Assistant  Secretary  of  the  Navy  during  the  Spanish 
War,  and  first  Civil  Governor  of  Porto  Rico.  In  the  Tal- 
bot  house  lived  Judge  Nathan  Crosby,  who,  as  our  famous 
"  Sixth "  marched  on,  said,  "  We  must  take  care  of  our 
boys,"  inaugurating  the  "Soldiers'  Aid." 

About  Park  Garden  are  grouped  the  older  mansions  of 
Belvidere.  On  their  walls  hang  the  paintings  of  many  ar- 
tists associated  with  Lowell:  etchings  by  Whistler,  whose 
father,  Major  George  Washington  Whistler,  left  Lowell  to 


104  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

become  consulting  engineer  to  the  Emperor  of  Russia.  Por- 
traits by  David  Neal,  the  first  American  to  receive  ' '  highest 
award"  from  the  Royal  Academy,  Munich,  also  born  in 
Lowell;  and  by  Alfred  Ordway,  Thomas  B.  Lawson,  Sarah 
W.  Whitman,  Adelaide  Cole  Chase,  the  younger  Healey; 
landscapes  by  Joseph  A.  Nesmith,  and  the  Old- World  handi- 
craft of  Laurin  H.  Martin.  The  Young  Trumpeter,  by  Mar- 
garet Foley,  recalls  her  earliest  work, — the  faces  carved  on 
her  bobbins. 


Ice-Cutting  on  the  Merrimack,  below  the  Lowell  General  Hospital,  formerly 
the  Fay  Homestead. 

Among  the  art  treasures  of  the  Public  Library  are  Healey's 
portraits  of  Nathan  Appleton  and  Patrick  T.  Jackson, 
founders  of  Lowell;  Lawson's  portrait  of  Webster,  said  to 
be  his  best  likeness;  and  La  Basilica  Di  San  Marco  in 
Venezia,  in  memory  of  Elizabeth  O.  Robbins  of  Lowell.  To 
her  memory  also  "  A  Library  for  the  Use  of  Travellers  "was 
founded  in  Boston  by  Susan  Travers. 

On  Andover  Street,   overlooking  Hunt's  Falls  and  the 


Dracut  105 

beautiful  view  down  the  Merrimack,  is  the  General  Benjamin 
F.  Butler  mansion,  built  by  Samuel  Lawrence,  the  residence 
of  General  Adelbert  Ames.  An  ancient  and  curious  powder- 
horn  hangs  in  the  library;  it  is  carved  by  the  hand  of  a 
soldier  ancestor  in  this  wise:  "  Zephaniah  Butler  His  Horn 
of  Woodbury ,  April  22,  1758.  War. ' ' 

Half  way  to  North  Tewksbury  Hill,  by  the  old  black- 
smith's shop  across  the  course  of  the  Long  Meadow  Golf 
Club,  lies  an  unusual  eskar — one  of  the  ridges  used  by  In- 
dians for  a  camping-  or  burial-ground — extending  to  the 
Merrimack.  On  the  opposite  bank,  high  above  the  Indians' 
path  described  by  Whittier  in  Taking  Comfort,  a  car 
glides  toward  Haverhill  and  Methuen  and  the  down-river 
towns. 

Below  the  Hood's  farm  ridge  is  Deer's  Jump,  the  river's 
narrowest  span  for  miles,  across  which,  tradition  says,  Wash- 
ington was  ferried  to  Varnum's  Landing  in  Dracut,  and  rode 
up  the  rough  fern-bordered  cart-path  escorted  by  General 
Joseph  Bradley  Varnum,  to  be  greeted  hospitably  at  the 
threshold  by  his  wife  Molly.  Behind  the  gnarled  pink  apple 
blooms  of  the  Varnum  homestead  is  the  family  burying- 
ground,  and  hard  by,  on  the  old  Lawrence  road,  is  the  General 
Simeon  Coburn  house.  The  river  hurries  along  in  occasional 
rapids  between  steep  banks  by  Glen  Forest,  and  falls  under 
the  long  bridge  at  Lawrence  with  the  force  of  a  miniature 
Niagara,  for  the  Merrimack  has  no  leisure  to  form  broad  and 
fertile  meadows  like  the  Connecticut,  its  course  being  only 
half  as  long  to  the  sea,  starting  at  the  same  elevation. 

DRACUT,   1664-1701 

In  passing  Christian  Hill  at  dusk  on  wintry  days  the  great 
mills  appear  masses  of  soft  light.  The  Merrimack  is  a  sil- 
very sheet  in  summer,  in  autumn  reflecting  foliage  of  myriad 


io6  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

hues,  and  perhaps  most  lovely  at  winter  sunset,  when  the  ice 
flashes  opal  tints  against  the  heights  of  Belvidere. 

Central  Bridge  of  ceaseless  traffic  overshadows  the  path  of 
Bradley 's  Ferry,  and  "Ferry  Lane"  (now  Hildreth  Street) 
leads  to  Dracut  Common,  a  triangular  piece  of  turf  remain- 
ing after  the  division  of  the  Hildreth  estate,  long  before  the 
Revolution,  and  presented  by  seven  Hildreth  sons  to  the 
town.  Three  homesteads  adjoin  this  training  green  of  more 
than  a  century  ago:  the  Hovey  homestead,  built  in  1760; 
the  Lieutenant  Micah  Hildreth-Richardson  house,  and  the 
General  William  Hildreth-Joseph  L.  Sargent  house,  built 
about  1800.  The  latter  has  a  hand-carved  cornice,  and 
once  had  a  gallery  around  its  second  story,  after  the  fashion 
of  the  Southern  homes  which  General  Hildreth  saw  and  ad- 
mired before  he  finished  his  campaign  at  Yorktown.  The 
Varnums,  Hildreths,  Parkers,  Hoveys,  Samuel  Barron,  and 
Thomas  Coburn  protested  openly  against  Shays'  Rebellion, 
and  signed  an  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  Commonwealth.  The 
Dr.  Amos  Bradley  house  is  close  by,  also  the  pretty  Hillside 
Meeting-house ;  to  another  part  of  Dracut  belongs  the  cele- 
brated Old  Yellow  Meeting-house.  Dracut,  at  first  an  in- 
land fishing  town,  was  patriotic  to  the  backbone.  Two 
thirds  of  her  citizens  wore  the  blue  and  buff ;  General  Joseph 
Bradley  Varnum,  General  James  Varnum,  and  Colonel 
Louis  Ansart  were  distinguished  officers ;  romantic  material 
enough  for  several  historical  novels  was  gathered  under  the 
rafters  of  the  Squire  Hildreth  house,  truly  an  Old  Curiosity 
Shop  of  war  accoutrements,  firelocks,  powder-horns,  can- 
teens, knapsacks,  rapiers,  pikes,  and  striking  black  leather 
helmets  with  floating  white  horsehair  plumes  worn  by  En- 
sign Thomas  Hildreth,  who  lost  his  life  in  the  French  and 
Indian  wars.1 

1  Origin  and  Genealogy  of  the  Hildreth  Family,  by  Captain  Philip  Reade. 


Dracut  107 

Dracut  is  the  birthplace  of  the  Honorable  Gustavus  Vasa 
Fox,  Assistant  Secretary  of  the  Navy.  During  his  unique 
mission  to  Russia  in  1866  he  was  offered  the  bread  and  salt  of 
welcome  throughout  the  empire,  receiving  a  thousand  offi- 
cial courtesies.  Arriving  at  Helsingfors  in  the  Mianto- 
nomoh, — the  first  monitor  to  cross  the  Atlantic, — he  was 
escorted  to  Cronstadt  by  a  fleet  commanded  by  the  Russian 
Rear-Admiral.  Mr.  Fox  delivered  the  congratulations  of  the 
United  States  to  his  Imperial  Highness  the  Emperor  Alex- 
ander II.,  then  sent  the  first  message  from  Russia  to  America 
over  the  Atlantic  cable. 

The  splendid  imperial  banquet  in  honor  of  our  American 
mission  was  succeeded  by  the  magnificent  entertainments 
of  the  Prince  Gortchakoff,  Prince  Dolgorouky,  and  Prince 
Galitzine;  by  dinners  at  the  Naval  and  English  clubs.  At 
the  banquet  of  the  Good-Birth  Society  of  St.  Petersburg,  in 
their  beautiful  pavilion  on  the  Countess  Strogonoff's  estate, 
a  poem  of  Holmes  was  read  in  honor  of  the  occasion.  Mr. 
Fox  having  been  invited  to  breakfast  at  the  palace  of  the 
Grand  Duke  Constantine,  the  Grand  Duchess  and  her  daugh- 
ter Olga  paid  the  American  officers  the  compliment  of  re- 
ceiving them,  gowned  in  white  with  sashes  of  red,  white,  and 
blue.  On  the  Isle  of  Czaritzine  in  the  gardens  of  Peterhof 
stands  an  oak  grown  from  the  tree  shading  Washington's 
tomb.  Each  of  our  officers  reverently  plucked  a  leaf  to 
carry  home  to  testify  to  the  homage  paid  in  Russia  to  the 
founder  of  our  Republic.  A  superb  "Malachite  Box,  Gift 
of  the  City  of  St.  Petersburg,"  to  Mr.  Fox,  is  in  the  Boston 
Museum  of  Fine  Arts.  The  Emperor's  farewell  gift  was  a 
snuffbox,  his  miniature  set  in  diamonds  on  the  lid,  pre- 
sented by  sovereigns  only  to  persons  of  the  highest  dis- 
tinction. In  1871,  the  Grand  Duke  Alexis  paid  a  visit  to 
his  "good  friend,  Mr.  Fox,  at  Lowell."  These  facts  are  from 
the  interesting  narration,  Fox's  Mission  to  Russia.  From  the 
Journal  of  J.  F.  Loubat.  Edited  by  John  D.  Champlin,  Jr. 


io8  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

One  hundred  and  twenty-eight  years  ago,  a  Dracut  boy, 
Israel  Hildreth,  with  but  two  pennies  in  his  pocket,  started 
out  to  seek  his  fortune  in  Newburyport ;  he  shipped  on  the 
privateer  Vengeance,  Captain  Newman,  and  after  most  ad- 
venturous voyages  turned  back  to  buy  with  his  share  of 
doubloons  his  father's  farm  in  Dracut.  As  "Squire  Hil- 
dreth," Justice  and  tithing-man,  he  was  among  the  last  of 
the  Middlesex  gentry  to  give  up  his  cue  and  small-clothes. 

On  the  old  Hildreth  farm  sloping  to  the  river  is  the  house 
of  Mrs.  Rowena  Hildreth  Reade,  with  graceful  trees,  fronting 
the  rapids  of  the  Merrimack  (Lakeview  Avenue).  Strolling 
thence  toward  the  Navy  Yard,  where  by  Beaver  Brook  the 
famous  Dracut  Garrison  faced  Indian  attack,  there  yet 
stands  on  Pleasant  Street  a  tavern  where,  the  story  goes, 
shortly  before  Lexington  battle,  knocked  two  soldiers  from 
the  King's  troops  asking  the  road  to  Londonderry.  At  sun- 
rise half-a-dozen  pursuing  red-coats  demanded  to  know  if 
the  inmates  had  given  shelter  to  two  deserters.  "No,  but 
two  men  had  asked  the  road."  "Didn't  you  give  'em 
shelter  or  food?  If  you  did,  we  '11  string  you  up!"  It 
turned  out  that  the  deserters  were  Irishmen,  who,  not  wish- 
ing to  fight  the  Americans,  were  seeking  refuge  at  London- 
derry with  their  Scotch-Irish  kinfolk.  The  settlers  of 
Londonderry,  it  is  said,  introduced  us  to  the  potato  and 
the  secret  of  the  manufacture  of  linen  cloth. 

MIDDLESEX    VILLAGE 

Quiet  Middlesex  Village,  at  the  Great  Bend  of  the  Merri- 
mack in  Lowell,  was  the  lively  shopping  district  of  East 
Chelmsford,  aforetime  called  the  "Glass-house  village."1 

1  On  the  opposite  sandy  shore,  during  his  Week  on  the  Concord  and 
Merrimack  Rivers,  Thoreau  and  his  brother  landed  to  gather  wild  plums, 
and  discovered  the  harebell  of  the  poets,  common  to  both  hemispheres, 
growing  close  to  the  water.  "Here,  in  the  shady  branches  of  an  apple 
tree  on  the  sand,  we  took  our  nooning." 


Lowell 


109 


No  vestige  remains  of  the  glass-works  where  lights  were 
manufactured  for  the  White  House,  or  the  hat  factory, 
though  "owner  Bent's"  house  yet  stands  on  Baldwin  Street. 
At  the  substantial  Clark  Tavern  Governor  Hancock  dined 


The  Rebecca  Warren-Smith  Homestead.     Built  1823. 
Middlesex  Village,  Lowell. 

when  he  inspected  the  Middlesex  Canal,  for  which  he 
granted  the  charter  in  1793.  Up-street  are  the  Tyler,  Bow- 
ers, Major  Nathaniel  Howard,  Amos  Whitney,  and  Samuel 
Burbank  homesteads ;  opposite  is  the  Cyrus  Baldwin  house, 
where  the  village  children  beheld  with  awe  gracious  Ma- 
dame Baldwin,  the  grand-dame  of  their  day,  as  she  sat  erect 
in  her  carved  mahogany  chair  receiving  her  friends. 

Near  by  the  stages  emptied  their  passengers  into  the  Bos- 
ton packet-boat  commanded  by  the  jovial  Captain  Silas 
Tyler.  In  the  Judge  Hadley  orchard  by  the  Tavern  is  a 
grass-grown  hollow  reminiscent  of  the  past  delightful  long- 
drawn  water  journey  from  Lowell  to  the  Governor's  seat  at 


no  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

Boston,  the  half-hours  marked  by  the  winding  of  the  horn 
at  the  locks.  The  canal's  nose  went  out  of  joint  and  the 
stage  coach's  also,  when,  in  1835,  steam  became  the  vogue, 
in  turn  to  be  challenged  by  electric  power.  A  farmer 
"sez,  sez  he,"  looking  at  the  first  train  puffing  onward  to 
Lowell,  "It 's  only  them  resky  fellows  can  afford  to  ride  be- 
hind that  there  iron  nag ;  a  family  man  like  me  dare  n't  do 
it." 


The  Zadoc  Rogers  Mansion,  Lowell. 
Endowed  by  Miss  Elizabeth  Rogers  as  Rogers  Hall  School. 


TYNGSBOROUGH,  1673-1809 

"  For  once  for  fear  of  Indian  beating 
Our  grandsires  bore  their  guns  to  meeting. 
Each  man  equipped  on  Sunday-morn 
With  psalm-book,  shot,  and  powder-horn." 

McFlNGAL. 

THE  bard,  John  Trumbull,  writes  of  King  Philip's  War, 
when  Tyngsborough,  Chelmsford,  and  Dracut  men  went 
armed  to  the  ploughing.  And  these  were  the  days  when  the 
farmer  built  first  his  house  and  then  laid  out  the  road  over 
the  grassy  path  to  his  neighbor's  door,  and  when  the  size 
of  the  wood-pile  in  front  of  the  farmhouse  declared  to  the 
wise  the  rank  of  the  owner. 

Beyond  Stony  Brook,  a  half-mile  above  North  Chelms- 
ford, you  will  mark  a  ferry,  somewhat  after  the  fashion  of 
the  ancient  chain  ferry,  crossing  the  Merrimack  to  Tyng's 
Island,  the  old  Wickasuck  Island  of  Tyngsborough.  Hid- 
den by  pines  is  the  summer  house  of  the  Vesper  Country 
Club,  with  its  fine  golf  course.  The  factitious  Indian  attack 
of  the  Knights  Templars  some  years  ago  had  a  flavor  of  the 
days  when  Tyngsborough  was  the  First  Parish  of  Dun- 
stable,  a  frontier  town  of  seven  garrisons,  commanded  by 
Colonel  Jonathan  Tyng,  who  faced  the  foe  in  his  fortified 
house — and  known  as  the  ' '  Haunted  House ' ' — alone.  After 
King  Philip's  War,  the  last  of  the  Pawtuckets,  or  Praying 
Indians,  lived  under  the  charge  of  Colonel  Tyng,  to  whom 
the  Court  presented  this  island.  The  Tyng  garrison  stood 
on  the  little  hill  close  to  the  Tyngsborough  road  opposite 
the  ferry  landing;  beyond,  at  Drake's  Corner,  are  the 
spacious  halls,  decorated  in  quaint  scenes  on  silvery  gray 
paper,  built  by  Eleazer  Tyng  in  1 700 ;  on  the  great  rock 


Ty  ngsborough  1 1 3 

where  Whitefield  preached,  shaded  by  a  twisted  butternut, 
is  a  tablet  to  Wannalancet,  who  lies  at  the  feet  of  his  friend 
Jonathan  Tyng,  in  the  family  burying  -  ground  yonder. 
Dudley  Atkins  Tyng,  Reporter  of  Decisions,  was  of  this 
family.  A  mile  up  the  river,  in  the  village,  the  Brinley 
homestead  speaks  of  a  splendid  hospitality.1  The  tragedy 
of  Holden's  Brook  was  the  shooting  of  the  celebrated  Joe 
English,2  who  taunted  his  Indian  captors  to  save  himself 
from  torture. 

There  is  still  a  Bancroft  farm,  and  many  are  the  descend- 
ants of  the  Spauldings,  Esterbrooks,  Colburns,  Farwells, 
Varnums,  Butterfields,  Fletchers,  and  the  Perhams  of  1760. 
Among  the  famous  sons  of  Tyngsborough  are  two  chief  jus- 
tices, Judge  John  Tyng,  and  Hon.  William  A.  Richardson, 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury. 

1  The  eminent  lawyer,  Francis  Brinley,  died  at  Newport.     The  great 
house  at  Tyngsborough  was  filled  with  fine  portraits  and  the  most  elegant 
appointments.     This    distinguished    family    came    from    the    village    of 
Datchett  near  Windsor,  the  scene  of  Sir  John  Falstaff's  ducking  in  the 
Merry  Wives  of  Windsor.     The  occasion  of  leaving  England  was  the  con- 
fiscation of  certain  estates  in  the  Cromwell  epoch.     The  life  of  Grissell 
Brinley,  the  bride  of  Nathaniel  Sylvester,  the  founder  of  the  historic 
house  on  Shelter  Island,  is  full  of  romantic  interest.     Many  of  the  Brin- 
ley heirlooms  went  to  the  bottom  of  the  sea  when  they,  with  her  brother 
Francis,  were  wrecked  off  Newport  in  the  Golden  Parrot. 

2  Joe  English,  a  friendly  Indian,  and  a  great  favorite  in  the  settlements, 
•was  a  grandson  of  the  Sachem  of  Agawam  (Ipswich).     The  tradition  goes 
that  on  the  hill  in  New  Boston  named  for  him,  Joe,  being  pursued  by  an 
Indian,  and  finding  escape  impossible,  threw  himself  suddenly  over  a 
precipice  on  to  a  familiar  ledge,  while  his  pursuer,  unable  to  stop,  was 
dashed  to  pieces  below.     Ford  was  another  "Indian  fighter."     He  was 
splitting  logs  when  a  party  of  Indians  pounced  suddenly  upon  him. 
Pretending  to  be  very  anxious  to  finish  his  work,  he  asked  them  to  pull, 
while  he  drove  the  wedge,  then  quickly  knocked  the  wedge  out  instead  of 
in,  and  they  were  his  prisoners,  with  their  fingers  caught  fast. 


NASHUA,  1673 

"  What  time  the  noble  Lovewell  came 

With  fifty  men  from  Dunstable 
The  cruel  Pegu' at  tribe  to  tame." 

BALLAD  OF  LOVEWELL'S  FIGHT,  1725. 

NASHUA,  N.  H.,  just  across  the  border  of  the  old  Bay 
State,  on  the  Nashua  River,  and  a  part  of  the  two-hundred- 
miles-square  township  of  Old  Dunstable,  is  to  all  outward  ap- 
pearance a  sprightly  young  manufacturing  city,  yet  the  deer 
and  bear  were  scared  off  by  the  whetting  of  the  farmer's 
scythe  many,  many  years  ago,  and  houses  were  planted 
on  Salmon  Brook  as  early  as  1673.  Thoreau  discovered 
traces,  a  mile  up  the  brook,  of  the  cellar  of  "  old  John  Love- 
well,"  an  ensign  of  Oliver  Cromwell,  who  lived  to  the  age  of 
one  hundred  and  twenty  years ;  notwithstanding  his  part  in 
the  Narragansett  Swamp  fight,  he  was  unmolested  through 
several  Indian  wars,  because  he  had  done  some  kindness  to 
his  neighbor  of  the  forest.  The  smoke  from  Lovewell' s 
chimney  must  have  been  a  welcome  sight  to  Hannah  Duston 
after  her  long  flight  from  above  Penacook  '  (Concord),  fear- 
ing to  see  at  any  moment  a  redskin's  birch  canoe  cross  her 
path.  Lovewell  is  best  known  as  the  father  of  the  valiant 
Captain  Lovewell,  who  fell  in  "  Lovewell' s  Fight"  at  Pe- 
quawket  (Fryeburg,  Me.),  where,  as  the  song  goes,  "they 
killed  Lieutenant  Robbins,  and  wounded  good  young 
Frye."  2  The  English  numbered  thirty-four  and  the  rebel 

1  In  1669  the  bold  and  warlike  Penacooks,  fearing  an  attack  from  the 
Mohawks,  moved  down  to  Pawtucket  (in  Lowell) ;    the  following  year  in 
an  expedition  against  this  powerful  enemy  they  were  nearly  all  destroyed, 
the  remainder  joining  the  Praying  Indians  of  Wamesit. 

2  Chaplain  Jonathan  Frye  of  Old  Andover  begged  his  comrades,  Eleazer 

114 


Nashua  1 1 5 

Indians  four-score,  yet  the  English  were  left  in  possession  of 
the  field.  Chief  Paugus  fell  also,  owing  to  a  slip  of  his 
ramrod,  through  which  he  lost  two  seconds  in  the  race  be- 
tween himself  and  Chamberlain  in  cleaning,  loading,  and 
firing  their  guns  by  Saco  Pond.  Paugus  had  raised  his  gun 
to  his  shoulder  as  Chamberlain  fired. 

But  what  availed  the  tomahawk's  protest !  The  red  man 
had  already  deeded  away  his  magnificent  hunting-grounds 
by  a  mere  beaver  or  arrow  mark  to  a  laboring  man  despising 
game  and  sport  and  of  great  common  sense ;  to  a  race  which 
had  crossed  over  a  wide  sea  in  order  to  plant  enduring 
towns.  The  mill-wheel,  turning  near  yonder  rude  bridge 
flung  over  the  Indian's  "carrying  place,"  had  driven  the 
beaver  and  musk-rat  further  up-stream.  The  very  wayside 
flowers,  the  free,  wild  things,  were  already  nodding  to  more 
civilized  foreign  rivals  scattered  broadcast  from  English 
grain  sown  in  Indian  cornfields;  glorious  native  mountain 
laurel, — carpeting  the  woods  with  snow  in  July, — the  clinging 
trailing  arbutus,  delicate  wind-flowers,  Indian  pipe,  the  red 
lily,  purple  iris,  and  the  golden-rod  were  told  by  the  South 
wind  and  the  East  wind  of  a  new  pale-faced  being  who 
threw  up  the  rocks  of  good  Mother  Earth  into  stone  walls, 
strewing  his  pathway  with  the  dandelion  and  trefoil,  the 
yarrow,  pink  and  white,  silvery  mullein,  and  prickly  bur- 
dock; and,  moreover,  of  a  strangely  refined  and  experienced 
woodsman  who,  with  dim  longings  for  cathedral  arches, 
cleared  away  the  lesser  trees,  leaving  the  lofty  elm  and  sym- 
pathetic willows  to  adorn  his  door-yard  and  the  village 
green. 

A  hundred  and  fifty  years  are  gone  and  this  new  Angle- 
race  is  engaged  in  throwing  off  old  "coils"  in  open  warfare. 

Davis  of  Concord  and  Lieutenant  Farwell  of  Dunstable  to  leave  him  and 
save  themselves.  Hawthorne's  story  of  Roger  Malvin's  Burial  is  said  to 
have  been  built  upon  this  pathetic  incident. 


' 

- 


Nashua  1 1 7 

Nashua's  flourishing  farms  advanced  promptly  to  the  front 
in  the  Revolutionary  siege  of  '75.  Bancroft  says,  "  The  hus- 
bandmen about  Nashua  had  already  sent  many  loads  of  rye 
to  the  poor  of  Boston."  Concord  Street  is  the  finest  in 
Nashua,— "The  Gateway  of  the  Switzerland  of  America." 


CHELMSFORD,   1653-1655 


"  Let  the  wealthy  and  great 
Roll  in  splendor  and  state, 

I  envy  them  not,  I  declare  it. 
I  eat  my  own  Lamb, 
My  own  Chicken  and  Ham, 

I  shear  my  own  Fleece,  and  I  wear  it. 
I  have  fruits,  I  have  Flowers, 
I  have  Lawns,  I  have  Bowers, 

The  Lark  is  my  morning  alarmer, 

So  Jolly  Boys  now 
Here  's  God  speed  the  Plough, 

Long  life  and  success  to  the  Farmer.  "  * 

SONG    OF   AN    ANCIENT   PlTCHER. 

BUT  a  half-hour's 
ride  from  Lowell  lies 
the  little  hamlet  of 
Chelmsford,  named 
for  the  English  town 
on  the  river  Chel- 
mer.  The  charming 
old  town  is  sought 
by  lovers  of  grassy 
lanes,  of  quaint 
homesteads,  of  real 
country  roads, 
bounded  by  stone 
walls,  and  scented 
with  wild  blossoms. 
Robin's  Hill  is  a 
favorite  climb,  and 
i  t  s  wide-spreading 
landscape  after  sun- 
set includes  the  dis- 


The  Cloister,  All  Saints'  Church,  Chelmsford. 


1  Inscribed  on  a  pitcher,  decorated  with  agricultural  implements,  one 
hundred  and  fifty  years  old,  inherited  from  Oliver  Pierce  of  Chelmsford  by 
Miss  Harriette  Rea. 

118 


Chelmsford 


119 


CHELMSFORD 

LANDMARKS:  Fiske  house,  Central 
Square.  Henry  Farwell-Timothy 
Adams  house.  On  "  The  Road  to  the 
Bay,"  old  thoroughfare  from  Groton 
and  Lancaster  by  Chelmsford  and 
Billerica  to  Boston.  First  Parish 
Church,  on  site  of  first  edifice,  1665. 
Chelmsford  Burying-ground.  Sol- 
diers' Monument.  Captain  Davis- 
Worthen  house,  Worthen  St. 
Lovell  Fletcher-Crosby  Farm,  1800. 
Albert  Perham  house  with  three- 
flued  chimney  and  two  ovens.  John 
Perham  Cider  Farm  (1664),  residence 
Henry  S.  Perham.  Emerson  house, 
1660.  Spalding  house,  1769.  The 
Richardson  farm.  Bartlett  House 
(1699)  Old  Tavern,  residence  J. 


Adams    Bartlett. 


Gibson- Adams- 


Bartlett  house,  residence  of  C.  E.  A. 
Bartlett.  Robin's  Hill.  "  Heyward 
Garrison,"  South  Chelmsford. 


tant  lights  of  "The  Hub."  Daughters  of  the  American 
Revolution  delight  in  interviewing  the  town  clerk,  in  whose 
charge  are  the  ideally  kept  records 
of  the  mother-town  of  Lowell ;  the 
Molly  Varnum  Chapter  have 
erected  a  boulder  on  the  spot 
where  Captain  Ford's  Company 
assembled  in  April,  '75.  Parson 
Bridge,  one  of  Chelmsford's  famous 
preachers,  requested  the  men  to 
go  first  to  the  meeting-house  for 
prayer,  but  Captain  Ford  replied, 
"  More  urgent  business  is  on  hand," 
and  hastened  toward  Concord.1  In 
this  company  enlisted  Governor 
Benjamin  Pierce  of  New  Hamp- 
shire (father  of  the  President), 
who  was  born  in  East  Chelmsford,  now  Lowell.  He  was 
ploughing  when  a  messenger  shouted  news  of  the  battle; 
tying  his  steers  to  a  stump,  he  walked  to  Concord.  In  a 
subsequent  battle  where  the  color-bearer  was  shot,  he  seized 
the  colors  and  bore  them  to  the  front.  In  the  peaceful  bury- 
ing-ground  (1690)  lie  some  forty  Revolutionary  heroes. 

The  Chelmsford  Social  Library,  established  in  1794  by 
the  Rev.  Hezekiah  Packard,  is  merged,  into  the  Adams 
Library.  Among  the  teachers  of  the  Chelmsford  Classical 
School  were  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson,  Benjamin  P.  Hunt, 
and  Professor  John  Dalton.  The  building  is  the  present 
parsonage  of  the  Central  Baptist  Society,  whose  church 
stands  on  the  site  of  the  Colonel  Samson  Stoddard  house, 
in  which,  according  to  Parson  Bridge's  Diary,  he  "Dined 
with  his  Excellency  the  Governor  and  Hon.  Mr.  Bowdoin," 
June  24,  1763. 

^Chelmsford,  by  Henry  S.  Perham,  in  Kurd's  Middlesex  County. 


BILLERICA,  1650-1655 

"  The  white  man  comes  with  a  list  of  ancient  Saxon,  Norman,  and  Celtic 
names  and  strews  them  up  and  down  this  river, —  Framingham,  Sudbury, 
Bedford,  Carlisle,  Billerica,  Chelmsford, — and  this  is  New  Angle-land,  and 
these  are  the  West  Saxons,  whom  the  red  men  call,  not  Angle-ish  or  English, 
but  Yengeese,  and  so  at  last  they  are  known  for  Yankees." — THOREAU'S  Week 
on  The  Concord. 

BILLERICA  of  the  wine-glass  elms  and  mighty  oak  must 
go  hand  in  hand  with  Chelmsford  in  historic  interest.  The 
ancient  "  Billerickey,"  declared  by  the  records  of  1661 
"a  hopeful  plantation,"  extended  from  Cambridge  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Concord  River,  and  with  Chelmsford  was  pos- 
sessed of  grants  including  the  larger  part  of  Lowell  and 
Tewksbury. 

Billerica  is  endowed  with  the  fairest  gifts  which  Nature 
can  bestow:  grassy  roads,  beguiling  trout-brooks,  crystal 
ponds,  and  two  sweet,  reflective  streams, — the  Concord  and 
the  town's  especial  love,  Shawshine,  the  meandering.  This 
sleepy  and  neighborly  stream  delights  in  creeping  this  way 
and  that,  to  gossip  at  the  stoops  of  half  the  towns  of  old 
Middlesex.  An  enchanting  spot  on  the  Shawshine  is  the 
vine-wrapped  ruin  of  the  aqueduct  of  the  old  Middlesex 
Canal,  once  a  quaint  and  favorite  means  of  transit  to  Bos- 
ton. For  the  sake  of  drinking  in  all  the  summer  sights  and 
sounds  one  would  like  to  board  a  canal-boat  this  very  sum- 
mer's day,  loitering  by  village  spires  between  fields  luminous 
with  buttercups  and  daisies  ("  pesky  weeds"  from  the  farm- 
er's point  of  view,  "henderin'  the  first  hayin'"),  and  occa- 
sionally sweep  the  strings  of  Miss  Guiney's  Roadside  Harp: 


Billerica  121 

"  Sweet  is  cherry-time,  sweet 
A  shower,  a  bobolink, 
And  the  little  trillium  blossom 
Tucked  under  her  leaf  to  think." 

Billerica's  bustling  taverns  were  many  and  noted  in  the 
latter  part  of  the  eighteenth  century ;  the  winding  of  horns, 
cracking  of  whips,  and  shouts  of  ''The  stage,  the  stage!" 
heralding  the  heavily  laden  stage-coach  from  Franconia 
Notch  rumbling  on  toward  Boston  made  halcyon  times  for 
the  tavern-keeper.  Billerica  did  not  escape  Indian  calamity 


A  Waste-Way  of  the  Old  Middlesex  Canal,  Billerica. 

or  the  witchcraft  mania,  and  "stories  of  sorcery  and  mid- 
night carousals  filled  with  terror  the  simple  and  imaginative 
country  folk."  *  One  of  the  Minute-men  of  this  patriotic 
town,  Thomas  Ditson,  Jr.,  while  innocently  trying  to 

Billerica,  by  Frederick  P.  Hill,  in  Drake's  History  of  Middlesex  County. 


122  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

purchase  a  gun,  was  tarred  and  feathered  and  drawn  through 
the  streets  of  Boston  to  the  tune  of  Yankee  Doodle  by  a  mob 
of  British  soldiery,  on  the  pretence  that  he  was  "a  rebel 
tempting  a  soldier  to  desert."  Near  the  bridge  on  the 


The  Manning  Homestead,  1792,  Billerica. 
Open  to  visitors  in  summer. 

North  Billerica  road,  the  weather-beaten  homestead  on  the 
left  in  front  of  which  is  a  memorial  boulder,  was  the  home 
of  Asa  Pollard,  the  first  man  killed  at  Bunker  Hill  by  a  can- 
non ball  thrown  from  the  line-of-battle  ship  Somerset,  wit- 
nessed and  remarked  upon  by  Colonel  Prescott  himself. 

At  the  dame's  school  of  1680,  little  scholars  gathered 
about  the  fireside  and  studied  from  the  ancient  horn-book,— 
a  square  of  transparent  horn  with  the  alphabet  pasted  on  the 
back.  Pemberton  Academy  flourished  in  1 797,  and  Billerica 


Billerica 


123 


was  known  as  a  literary  centre.  Among  her  names  of  dis- 
tinction are  Governor  Talbot  of  Massachusetts,  Governor 
Stearns  of  New  Hampshire,  the  BILLERICA 

Rev.  Elias  Nason,  Miss  Elizabeth  LANDMARKS:    North  BWcaea ,  Asa 

-n      1       1  JJ_IT->  •»*••  T      Pollard   house    and    boulder;    first 

Peabody,  and  the  Rev.  Minot  J.  ^  killed  at  Battle  of  Bunker  H^ 
Savage.  The  Rev.  Samuel  Whiting  Jo1"1  R°Kers  Farm  <l69S) ;  scene  of 

.  |  Indian  massacre.     Talbot  Memorial 

established    an     eminent     family,  Haii,  near  raih-oad  station.  BUknca, 

Bennett  Hall  (1800),  Residence  of 
the  Hon.  Joshua  Bennett  Holden. 
Howe  School  (1852).  Stearns  House 
(1811),  now  "  Hillhurst"  Site  Old 
Danforth  Garrison  house  (1676), 
River  St.,  near  "Fairview  "  J.  Nelson 
Parker  residence.  Bowers  home- 
stead (1804) ;  summer  residence  of 
the  Rev.  Minot  J.  Savage.  Bennett 
Library  and  Historical  Rooms. 
Unitarian  Church  (1697),  org.  1663 ; 
view  from  belfry.  Town  Hall.  Sol- 
diers' Monument.  The  Common. 
Whitman's  Lane,  from  Bedford  St. 
to  Concord  River.  South  Burying 
Ground,  Bedford  St.  Jaquith  home- 
stead, cor.  Old  Middlesex  Turnpike. 
Jaquith  "Garrison."  Nutting's  Pond 
and  Causeway,  i  J  mile  from  Square. 
Bowman  house,  once  famous  hos- 
telry on  Lexington  Road.  Winning's 
Pond.  Gilson's  Hill.  Site  Fletcher 


and  the  Danforths,  Parkers, 
Crosbys,  Kidders,  Rogerses,  Whit- 
mans, Lockes,  Prestons,  and  Faulk- 
ners  are  prominent  throughout  the 
town  records. 

In  the  vocabulary  of  this  Bil- 
lerica of  ours,  and  in  secluded 
farming  districts  of  New  England, 
the  casual  visitor  marks  occasional 
quaint  phrases  now  obsolete  in  Eng- 
land. At  the  old  homestead  farm 
on  Thanksgiving  day  the  white- 
haired  house-mother  —  gentlewo- 
man to  her  finger-tips  —  having 

heaped     SOme    twenty    plates    With  !  Hill  Cemetery.     Old  Aqueduct  over 
1  j      j(  £     •         »  •  j.1        I  Shawshine  River  and  Old  Middlesex 

turkey  and  "  fixms,  seizes  the  Canal  (near  Wilmington  Bne;.  Con- 
golden  opportunity  to  inculcate  a  tent  Brook, 
bit  of  thrift  and  table  manners  into  the  lively  mind  of  her 
youngest  grandson  with  her  mother's  early  precept:  "Look 
out  for  your  orts,  sonny,  look  out  for  your  orts,  then  Grand- 
ma '11  give  you  a  piece  of  mince-pie ! ' '  The  city  boy's  mother 
has  to  translate  the  queer  word  to  her  little  son,  telling  him 
that  it  means  that  the  odds  and  ends  left  upon  his  plate 
must  be  duly  swallowed.  The  expressive  Yankee  excla- 
mation, "Oh  dear  me,  suz! "  is,  in  the  original,  "Oh  dear 
me,  sorrows ! ' ' 


MIDDLESEX  FELLS  AND  REVERE  BEACH 

MIDDLESEX  FELLS  and  Revere  Beach  are  everybody's  play- 
ground ;  they  are  dedicated  by  the  State  to  the  people,  and 
are  a  part  of  the  almost  ideal  metropolitan  park  system  of 
Boston.  The  Fells  T  is  a  tract  of  wild  woodland  two  miles 
square,  a  veritable  paradise  for  children, — especially  children 
of  a  larger  growth.  The  grand  feast  of  nature  is  spread  be- 
fore him  who  wishes  to  enjoy,  accompanied  by  the  melody 
of  birds  and  brooks  and  talking  trees,  and  the  most  beautiful 
woodland  roads  and  footpaths  wind  in  and  out  and  across 
causeways  between  great  ponds,  where  the  sunset  views  defy 
description;  the  nature-lover  lingers  bewitched,  until  "The 
night  shuts  the  woodside,  with  all  its  whispers  up. ' '  The  Met- 
ropolitan Park  Commissioners  are  continually  opening  new 
paths  for  pleasure,  and  every  year  interest  increases  in  their 
artistic  work;  our  unrivalled  park  systems,  we  are  told, 
may  one  day  reach  in  an  unbroken  chain  from  the  eastern 
seaboard  to  the  shores  of  California.2 

Revere  Beach,  the  new  American  Brighton,  has  been  under 
constant  improvement  by  the  Park  Commissioners  for  many 
months.  The  original  "  shanty dom"  which  destroyed  the 
singularly  beautiful  line  of  the  beach  has  been  literally 
swept  away.  Everything  has  been  arranged  to  forward  the 
healthful  pleasure  of  those  who  delight  to  disport  them- 
selves on  the  sand  or  in  the  ocean ;  the  immense  bath-house, 
with  subway  passages  to  the  beach,  is  not  the  usual  blot  on 
the  landscape ;  and  there  is  music  for  the  multitude.  A  fine 
promenade  and  a  roadway  are  being  built,  and  it  is  probable 
may  be  extended  towards  King's  Beach  reservation,  and  to 
Chelsea  and  Boston,  eventually  bordering  the  whole  North 

1  "Park-Making  as  a  National  Art,"  Atlantic  Monthly,  Jaunary,  1897. 

2  The  Boston  Park  Guide,  by  Sylvester  Baxter. 

124 


Middlesex  Fells  and  Revere  Beach        125 

Shore.  At  Chelsea  a  park  is  being  laid  out  by  the  city  ad- 
joining the  Naval  Hospital  grounds.  Near  by  is  the  site  of 
the  first  house  in  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony,  and  under 
the  shadow  of  Powderhorn  Hill  stands  the  Pratt  house,  black 


Revere  Beach  Reservation,  in  Front  of  the  Government  Bath-House. 

with  the  good  old  age  of  nearly  two  hundred  and  fifty  years. 

Winnisimmet  (Chelsea)  was  declared  by  Ward  to  be  "a 

very  sweet  place  for  a  situation,  being  fit  to  entertain  more 

planters  than  are  as  yet  seated."      Winnisimmet  Ferry  was 

'  kept  by  Thomas  Marshall  in  1635.     The  Marquis  Chastellux, 

crossing  in  1782,  lamented  that  it  should  take  seven  tacks  in 

a  scow  filled  with  cattle  to  reach  Boston  town.     On  Pullin 

Point,  now  Winthrop,   is  the  house  of  the  sixth  son  of 

Governor  Winthrop, — Deane  Winthrop, — built  about  1650. 


NAHANT 

"  Skoal !  to  the  Northland!   Skoal  /" 

"  Of  Ymer's  flesh 
Was  earth  created, 
Of  his  blood  the  sea." 

THE  ELDER  EDDA. 

THE  Norwegian  sagas  of  long,  long  ago  tell  us  that  Bjarne 
of  Iceland,  colony  of  the  sea-kings,  drifted  far  out  of  his 
course  as  he  sailed  toward  Greenland.  Light  and  land  were 
hid  by  clouds  and  sleet  blowing  about,  these  being  the 
"brains  of  the  Giant  Ymer."  Suddenly  Balder,  "  god  of  the 
summer  sun,"  smiled  upon  his  ship,  throwing  a  path  of 
golden  light  across  the  blood  of  Ymer,  and  revealed  to 
Bjarne  an  unknown  land  without  overshadowing  mountains. 
Returning  to  the  Northland,  the  wonders  of  his  adventure 
fired  the  bold  Leif,  son  of  Eric  the  Red,  King  of  the  Vik 
(bay),  to  discover  anew  the  sunlit  country  of  wooded  hills. 

It  was  now  the  year  1000,  and  King  Olaf  commanded 
Leif  to  carry  hither  the  good  news  of  Bethlehem,  which  the 
harpers  had  sung  to  his  people.  Thus  he  sailed,  and  sailed, 
standing  high  on  the  bow,  guiding  the  oarsmen  over  Bjarne's 
course.  For  days  the  ship  swept  on  before  favorable  winds, 
the  rowers'  seats  were  empty,  the  battle-shields  hung  along 
the  gunwales.  One  morning,  the  raven-pilot  let  loose  did 
not  return  to  the  masthead,  and  Leif,  pointing  the  huge 
dragon-prow  over  the  bird's  flight,  entered  a  fjord  and 
landed  where  grapes  were  plenty.  Erickson  turning  his 
ship  into  a  house,  dwelt  here  in  Vineland,  where  there  is  no 
long  darkness.  Thorwald,  his  brother,  exploring  the  coast 
in  1004,  seeing  a  remarkable  headland  holding  a  bay,  named 

126 


Nahant  and  the  Norsemen 


127 


it  Kialarnes,  or  Keel-Cape,  because  of  its  resemblance  to  a 
ship's  keel  (probably  Cape  Cod).  Another  day  they  were 
attracted  by  a  promontory  covered  with  wood  and  battle- 
mented  by  stone  (Nahant).1  The  Viking  exclaimed,  "Here 
it  is  beautiful,  and  here  I  should  like  to  fix  my  dwelling!"  On 


Cottage  of  George  H.  Alifflin,  Xahant.     Egg  Rock  Light. 
"Across  the  narrow  beach  we  flit 
One  little  sand-piper  and  I." — CELIA  THAXTER. 

the  sandy  beach  three  canoes  hid  each  three  Indians  who 
had  seen  this  strange  big  canoe  approaching  from  their  "  Sea 
of  Darkness"  (the  Atlantic  Ocean).  The  Norsemen  and  the 

1  Some  believe  that  the  promontory  on  which  Thorwald  landed  was 
Hull,  others  Gurnet  Point.  A  party  of  young  Norsemen  built  a  ship  after 
the  pattern  of  the  Vikings  and  voyaged  from  Norway  to  the  "World's 
Fair"  at  Chicago  in  1893. 

9 


128  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

Skralligs  fought,  and  Thorwald,  finding  his  arrow -wound 
mortal,  said:  "I  now  advise  you  to  take  your  departure, 
but  me  ye  shall  bring  to  the  promontory  where  I  thought 
good  to  dwell.  There  ye  shall  bury  me,  and  plant  a  cross  at 
my  head  and  at  my  feet  and  call  the  place  Krossaness — Cape 
of  the  Cross — in  all  time  to  come." 


Copyright  Chas.  B.  Webster. 

The  Nahant  Life-saving  Crew. 
"  A  Gun  !     Where  Away  ?  " 

Below  the  Cliff  Walk  of  Great  Nahant,  the  salt  waters 
rushing  in  and  out  of  wide  fissures,  diving  into  the  Swallows' 
Cave  and  other  grottos,  gossip  all  the  while  in  an  undertone 
of  the  courtship  of  Wenepoykin,  Sagamore  of  Lynn  and 
Chelsea,  and  Ahanayet,  maid  of  Nahant,  daughter  of  Po- 
quanum,  the  Dark  Skin,  or  "Black  Will,"  who  is  said  to 
have  sold  his  birthright,  Nahant,  to  Thomas  Dexter,  for  a 
suit  of  clothes.  The  three  beautiful  daughters  of  Wenepoy- 
kin (a  feather)  were  called  Wanapanaquin,  the  Plumed  Ones. 


Nahant  a  Sheep  Pasture 


129 


He  was  the  youngest  son  of  Nanepashemet,  the  Great  Moon 
Chief,  who  left  Lynn  when  he  heard  the  Taratines  were 
sharpening  their  tomahawks  to  take  vengeance,  and  fortified 
himself  at  Mistic  (Medford). 

In  the  Puritan  period,  when  wolves  were  plenty  and 
sheep  few,  a  demure  and  silent  shepherdess  watched  the  first 
flocks  of  New  England  lest  they  fall  into  the  sea.  Mehitable 
heeded  the  Province  laws  which  forbade  her  "to  hold  con- 
verse with  the  young  men  meanwhile,"  and  obediently  spun 
the  family  tax  of  woollen  yarn.  Perad venture  when  a  smit- 
ten shepherd  came  to  the  rescue  of  her  wandering  sheep  the 
law  was  not  broken  by  the  glance  which  said,  "Why  don't 
you  speak  for  yourself,  John?" 


Copyright  Chas.  B.  Webster. 


She  's  Fast .'     To  the  Rescue  !  " 

Nahant  was  the  pet  pasture  of  the  Lynn  farmer  of  old, 
who  drove  his  flock  behind  the  wolf  barrier  across  the  nar- 
row neck  of  the  Long  Beach,  linking  Great  and  Little  Na- 
hant ;  he  was  wroth,  indeed,  when  Mr.  Edmund  Randolph, 


i3°  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

"  the  Collector,  Surveyor,  and  Searcher  in  New  England," 
instant  in  the  taking  away  of  our  colonial  charter,  after  as- 
suring the  King  that  the  "bank"  of  "The  Society  for  the 
Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts"  might  be  di- 
verted to  build  an  Episcopal  church,  also  hesitated  not  to 
ask  Governor  Andros  to  grant  him  Nahant  as  his  private 
domain.  Seeing  "our  Nahants"  in  danger  of  alienation, 
the  men  of  Lynn  protested  without  avail ;  fortunately,  the 
landing  of  the  Prince  of  Orange  at  Torbay,  with  the  spirited 
rising  of  Boston  against  the  tyrannical  Governor,  prevented 
more  insult,  and  the  men  of  Lynn  went  up  to  Boston  to  help 
unseat  the  hated  Andros  and  his  Councillors. 

The  following  extract  "  from  a  Manuscript  Account  of  the 
Insurrection  among  the  papers  of  the  Archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury, is  said  to  have  been  written  by  Randolph  himself ' ' 
(Lewis):  "April  igth  about  n  o'clock  the  country  came 
in,  headed  by  one  Shepard,  teacher  of  Lynn,  like  so  many 
wild  bears,  and  the  leader,  mad  with  passion  more  savage 
than  any  of  his  followers.  All  the  cry  was  for  the  Governor 
and  Mr.  Randolph." 

The  modern  air  of  the  aristocratic  old  watering-place, — 
Nahant, — this  rocky  promontory  discovered  by  Agassiz  to  be 
older  than  the  Continent  of  Europe,  is  rife  with  traditions  of 
science,  literature,  and  statesmanship.  Nahant 's  long  fa- 
miliar lovers  were  Longfellow,  Motley,  Agassiz,  Prescott, 
Wendell  Phillips,  and  the  Eliots,  Amorys,  Austins,  Princes, 
Minots,  Codmans.  The  cliff  path  to-day  passes  through  the 
estate  of  the  Hon.  Henry  Cabot  Lodge. 

Among  the  pioneer  cottages  were  those  of  the  Breeds, 
Hoods,  Johnsons,  and  Tudors.  At  the  Jonathan  Johnson 
house  the  Song  of  Hiawatha  was  written.  The  pulpit  of  this 
oldest  Union  Church  has  been  filled  by  famous  preachers  for 
fifty  years. 

The  jiggers  of  Swampscott  swoop  like  curlews  over  the 


i32  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

foaming  wake  of  great  steamers  making  port  by  Egg  Rock, 
—a  "lion  couchant"  on  the  sea.  The  traveller  listens  with 
Longfellow  to  the  Bells  of  Lynn: 

"  Borne  on  the  evening  wind  across  the  crimson  twilight, 
O'er  land  and  sea  they  rise  and  fall,  0  bells  of  Lynn! 
The  fisherman  in  his  boat  far  out  beyond  the  headland, 
Listens  and  leisurely  rows  ashore,  O  bells  of  Lynn!" 

In  Boston  Harbor  the  setting  sun  touches  the  islands  and 
inleted  shore,  burnishes  the  State  House  dome,  tips  Bunker 
Hill  Monument  and  the  many-masted  craft  with  gold. 
Minot's  Ledge  Light  flashing  far  to  the  left  is  the  finishing 
touch  to  a  twilight  pastel. 


Hemlocks  in  the  Fells. 


LYNN  (SAUGUS)   1629 

"  The  bonnie  heire,  the  weel  faured  heire, 

And  the  weary  heire  of  Lynne, 
Yonder  he  stands  at  his  father's  gate 
And  naebody  bids  him  come  in." 

"  The  Heir  of  Lynne."     OLD  BALLAD. 

LYNN  of  the  New  World  challenges,  forsooth,  to  legendary- 
combat  Lynn  Regis  or  King's  Lynn,  famous  for  shrimps,  that 
extremely  ancient  Saxon  harbor  town,  flavored  with  its 
far-back  Roman  Empire  nautical  lore  and  favored  by  King 
John  with  his  sword  and  a  silver  cup.  Farther  down  the 
centuries  it  is  well  known  as  a  storied  bit  of  Norfolk,  Eng- 
land, as  we  find  in  Thomas  Hood's  delicious  verse: 

"  Two  stern-faced  men  set  out  from  Lynn 

Through  the  cold  and  heavy  mist ; 
And  Eugene  Aram  walked  between 
With  gyves  upon  his  wrist." 

It  must  be  acknowledged  that  our  Lynn  never  possessed 
such  a  "Friar"  as  theirs,  who  by  magic  art  flew  over  the 
seaport's  embattled  wall  to  the  North  Pole.  Yet  to  her 
belong  transatlantic  Norwegian  and  Indian  myths ;  more- 
over, our  wonder  -  seeking  dame  weird  Moll  Pitcher,  the 
Prophetess,  here  dwelt  in  lonely  witchery  under  the  shadow 
of  High  Rock,  now  itself  overshadowed  by  traffic  in  the 
bewildering  undertaking  of  fashioning  daintily,  by  the 
million,  my  lady's  shoe.  An  early  New  England  fol- 
lower of  St.  Crispin,  Phillip  Kertland  by  name,  is  said  to 
have  made  for  all  the  maids  of  Saugus,  the  name  by  which 
Lynn  was  first  known,  a  pair  of  neat's  leather  shoes  matched 

133 


134  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

by  another  pair  fashioned  in  white  satin  for  their  wedding 
day.  About  1727  the  maid's  buckles  went  out  of  date,  and 
in  1750  a  Welshman,  John  Adam  Dagyr,  made  the  town 
celebrated  for  the  production  of  foot-gear  quite  on  a  par 
with  the  best  English  make,  thereby  laying  the  foundation 

of  a  gigantic  industry.  The  first 
Rock,  180  emigrant  "shoomaker"  of  New 
England,  a  Thomas  Beard,  was  of 
such  importance  that  he  was  as- 
signed fifty  acres  of  land  by  the 
New  England  Company,  who  men- 
tioned in  their  letter  of  advice  of 
1629,  that  "the  said  Thos.  Beard 
hath  in  the  ship  May  Flower, 
divers  hydes  w<=h  hee  intends  to 
make  upp  in  boots  and  shoes  there 
in  the  country." 

In  the  days  of  Julius  Caesar, 
Paris  itself  is  said  to  have  been  a 
sheer  collection  of  huts,  and  the 
early  "Proprietors1  of  Lynn,"  for 
the  most  part,  lived  in  thatched 
cottages  facing  the  south,  each  in 
itself  a  "domestic  sun-dial,"  for 
when  the  sun  "shone  square"  at 
noon,  the  h 'us' wife  knew  it  was 
time  to  call  her  good  man  in  to  dinner,  of  which  it  seems 

1  The  largest  Proprietor  being  granted  eight  hundred  acres,  was 
Lord  Brook,  who  never  entered  into  his  coveted  heritage  of  liberty  in 
America,  because  this  "fanatic  Brook,"  as  Scott  calls  him  in  Marmion, 
was  shot  down  as  he  "stormed  and  took"  the  fair  cathedral  of  Litchfield. 
Other  proprietors  were  Edward  Holyoke,  ancestor  of  Elizur  Holyoke,  for 
whom  Mt.  Holyoke  was  named;  Allen  Breed,  Nicholas  Brown,  Edward 
Howe,  also  Tomlins,  Hawkes,  Burrill,  Hutchinson,  Newhall,  Ballard, 
Howell,  and  the  "very  learned  Samuel  Whiting."  The  sons  of  the  last 


LYNN 

LANDMARKS:  High 
feet.  (View  of  Massachusetts  Bay.) 
House  of  Alonzo  Lewis,  the  Lynn 
bard,  Boston  St.  Old  Hathorne 
house,  now  Lynn  Hospital,  Boston 
St.  Ocean  St.  Lynn  and  Nahant 
Beaches  (or  Long  Beach).  Soldiers' 
Monument.  Oxford  Club  House. 
City  Hall.  Kettle,  first  iron  cast  in 
America  by  Joseph  Jenks,  first 
founder,  "  who  worked  in  brass  and 
iron,"  here  shown.  Lover's  Leap, 
133  feet,  West  Lynn.  Site  of  the  first 
Iron  Works  in  U.  S.  at  Saugus,  1642. 
Floating  Bridge,  Glenmere  Road. 
The  Fay  estate — in  1700  estate  of  Dr. 
Caspar  Richter  van  Crowninscheldt, 
ancestor  of  the  Crowninshields — Cot- 
ton Mather  praised  the  virtues  of  his 
Red  Spring.  Rhodes  Memorial 

Chapel,  in  Pine  Grove  Cemetery. 
Johnson's  Grove.  Lynn  Woods 
(2000  acres).  Sadler's  Rock  of  pur- 
ple porphyry.  From  hills  of  por- 
phyry were  erected  St.  Stephen's  and 
the  First  Universalist  Churches. 

Supplementary:  Annals  of  Lynn, 
by  Alonzo  Lewis  and  James  R.  New- 
hall.  Lynn  Woods,  by  Nathan  M. 
Hawkes.  Boston  Park  Guide,  by 
Sylvester  Baxter. 


Lynn 


pumpkins  was  a  prominent  dish.  Edward  Johnson  said,  in 
his  Wonder-Working  Providence,  "  Let  no  man  make  a  jest  of 
Pumpkins,  for  with  this  food  the  Lord  fed  his  people  till 
Corne  and  Cattell  increased." 


"The  Simple  C abler  of  Aggawam. 

Willing  to  help  'mend  his  Native  Country."   (From  life). 
' '  Jest  like  the  old  feller's  shop  where  I  use  to  swap  politics. ' '      (Com- 
ment by  Farmer  B.) 

The  village  folk  were  much  put  about  by  a  visit  from 
pirates,  who  anchored,  tradition  says,  in  Saugus  River. 
The  stranger  crew  were  seen  to  hasten  westward  seeking  an 

named  became  ministers,  one  in  England,  another  at  Billerica,  and  the 
third  in  Southampton,  L.  I.  Caroline  Lee  Hentz,  the  author,  was  the 
daughter  of  General  John  Whiting  and  sister  of  General  Henry  Whiting. 
Among  the  Kertlands  (or  Kirkland)  family  is  Rev.  Daniel  Kertland  of 
Norwich,  Rev.  Samuel  Kertland,  missionary  to  the  Oneida  Indians, 
father  of  John  Thornton  Kirkland,  President  of  Harvard.  Southampton, 
L.  I.,  was  settled  by  the  Kertlands,  Job  Sayre,  Farrington,  and  otherst 
because  they  had  found  themselves  "straitened"  at  Lynn. 


Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

impregnable  spot  in  the  recesses  of  the  forest.  This  deep 
and  narrow  valley  in  Lynn  Woods,  hidden  by  pines  and 
hemlocks,  is  known  as  the  Pirates'  Glen.  From  one  point 
on  the  summit  of  the  craggy  rocks  the  banditti  could  spy  the 
coast.  Near  the  iron  foundry  a  workman  found  a  paper 
setting  forth  that  if  certain  iron  tools,  including  shackles  and 
hatchets,  were  left  on  that  spot,  silver  would  be  left  in  re- 
turn, which  came  to  pass,  as  the  villagers  dared  not  refuse. 
But  men  from  a  King's  cruiser  followed,  discovered  their 
hiding-place,  and  carried  three  of  the  pirates  away  to  be 
executed.  The  fourth,  Thomas  Veal,  concealed  himself  in 
a  cavernous  rock  with  the  plunder,  where  he  was  buried 
alive  by  the  great  earthquake  of  1658  in  the  Pirates'  Dun- 
geon. This  rock  was  excavated  nearly  two  centuries  later 
by  Hiram  Marble,  inspired  by  supposed  "revelations"  of 
pirate  treasure.  His  labor  was  fruitless,  and  Marble's  dollar 
bonds  are  "null,"  indeed  quite  void,  inasmuch  as  his  "spirit- 
led"  tunnel  is  controlled  bv  the  Public  Forest  Trustees. 


The  Great  Woods  Road,  once  the  woodman's  cart -path, 
cuts  so  wide  a  swathe  as  it  enters  Lynn  Woods  by  Glen 
Lewis  Pond  that  it  covers  all  trace  of  the  ancient  Blood 
Swamp  Landing,  where  the  Woodenders,  Gravesenders, 
Nahant  Streeters,  and  Mansfieldenders  gee'd  and  haw'd  to 
the  patient  oxen  from  their  wood-sleds. 

Once  again  we  hold  Lynn  Woods  in  common,  as  did  the 
colonists  till  it  was  divided  among  the  freeholders  in  1706. 
The  ten  crystal  ponds,  chained  as  it  were  within  the  town 
bounds,  mirrored  hosts  of  wild  fowl,  and  William  Wood,  ar- 
riving in  Lynn  soon  after  the  Ingalls  settlers,  tells  us  in  his 
charming  New  Englands  Prospect  that  the  sun's  light  was 
obscured  by  the  swarming  flight  of  wild  pigeons, — the  In- 
dian's wuscowan,  or  "wanderer." 

Behind  these  venerable  boughs  and  ledges  of  tinted  por- 
phyry lurks  no  catamount  or  bear,  and  the  great  Wolf-Pits, 


Lynn  Woods 


dug  by  the  farmers,  still  there  after  two  hundred-  years, 
catch  no  game ;  the  last  captives  being  a  squaw  and  a  wolf 
who  sat,  each  in  a  horrid  fright,  staring  at  each  other. 

Strolling  through  a  lane  of  pines  in  Penny  Brook  Glen,  or 


Glen  Lewis  Road,  Lynn  Woods. 

another,  there  is  a  spirit  of  mild  adventure  in  a  chance 
squirrel  or  woodchuck,  a  fox,  or  even  an  unexpected  water- 
fall chiming  with  the  wild- wood  voice  of  the  hermit-thrush,— 
"  all  the  sweeter  because  he  is  a  hermit."  The  mystic  fairy 
ring  marks  Oberon  revels  or  some  sylvan  Arabian  Nights' 
Entertainments  related  to  the  listening  cedars  by  a  dryad 
perched  on  a  mossy  boulder. 

A  climb  to  Tophet  Ledge,  Burrill  Hill,  or  to  Mount  Gilead 
(267  feet)  reveals  the  larger  part  of  the  Puritan's  country, 


Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 


from  the  Blue  Hills  and  Cohasset  along  the  coast  by  the 
marshes  of  Saugus  and  Revere,  following  northward  the  line 
of  curving  surf  toward  Mt.  Agamenticus.  Lynn  Beach, 
where  the  Indians  held  running  matches,  is  the  city's  in- 


A  By-Path,  Lynn-field. 

valuable  reservation  for  coming  centuries.  On  Lynn  Ter- 
race below  Ocean  Street,  where  the  lawns  of  beautiful  homes 
almost  touch  green  water,  the  harmonious  scene  is  illumined 
by  the  lines  of  Aldrich : 

"  For  me  the  clouds;  the  ships  sail  by  for  me; 

For  me  the  petulant  sea-gull  takes  her  flight ; 
And  mine  the  tender  moonrise  on  the  sea." 


SWAMPSCOTT,  1637-1852 


THE  Swampscott  highway  hugs  King's  Beach  and  Whales 
Beach  on  the  right ;  to  the  left  is  the  beautiful  Mudge  estate 
with  the  Mudge  Memorial  Church,  formerly  owned  by  the 
Hon.  Ebenezer  Burrill ;  beyond,  lovely  Paradise  Road  winds 
through  the  woodland.  There  are  hosts  of  wild  flowers 
in  Swampscott, — hepatica,  bloodroot,  yellow  violet,  and 
fringed  gentian ;  and  at  midsummer  such  a  glory  of  yellow 
broom  covers  the  rocky  pastures  that  it  would  seem  as  if  a 
King  Midas  gifted  with  the  Golden  Touch  had  passed  this 
way.  Yet  some  matter-of-fact  historian  may  whisper  to  you 

that,   after  all  (the 

-  _, 


Genista  tinctoria),  a 
proud  Plantagenet 
plume,  was  merely 
an  immigrant  in 
Endicott's  goodly 
company. 

To  M  a  s  t  e  r  Wil- 
liam Humphrey  was 
granted  Swamp- 
scott ;  on  his  arrival 
with  his  wife,  Lady 
Susan  of  Lincoln,  he 
distributed  a  gift 
from  one  Andrew, 
Alderman  of  Lon- 
don, of  fifteen  heif- 


Our  Friend  the  Captain. 


ers,  eight  of  which  were  for  the  Colony's  ministers  and 
the  remainder  for  the  poor.     The  Lady  Deborah  Moodie 

139 


140    Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

bought  his  farm,  "  to  her  undoing,"  she  being  the  occasion  of 
great  distress  to  the  elders  of  the  Salem  Church.  She  was 
presented  at  the  Quarterly  Court,  with  Mrs.  King  and  the 
wife  of  John  Tilton,  in  1642,  not  as  "common  sleepers  in  time 


Short  Beach,  Swampscott  —  The  Galloup  House,  on  Galloup's  Point. 

"  Splendors  of  morning  the  billow-crests  brighten, 

Lighting  and  luring  them  on  to  the  land." 

— "  Surf."     E.  C.  STEDMAN. 

of  the  exercise  of  preaching,"  but  for  houldinge  infant  bap- 
tism a  sinful  ordinance.  Dame  Deborah  fled  from  intoler- 
ance, and  at  Long  Island  she  rendered  such  great  assistance 
to  Governor  Stuyvesant  that  he  at  once  conceded  the  nomi- 
nation of  the  magistrates  that  year  to  her. 

Passing  the  quaint  Blaney  homestead,  the  road  winds  in- 
land.    The  view  towards  Phillips  Beach  is  one  of  green 


Swampscott 


141 


meadows,  summer  villas,  and  blue  sea,  to  which  the  occa- 
sional high  ledges  on  the  left  are  in  striking  contrast.  Be- 
yond is  cloistered  Crowningshield  Lane  at  Clifton,  Clifton 
Heights,  and  Gun  Rock,  together  with  the  old  Devereux 
mansion  along  shore ;  the  brave  harbor  of  Marblehead  reins 
in  the  prancing  horses  of  the  sea,  saucily  stamping  and 
foaming  half  a  league  out  around  Half- Way  Rock,  on  whose 
rugged,  frowning  slopes  the  outgoing  fisherman  must  toss 
a  coin  to  bring  him  "good  luck  and  safe  return." 

Trace  Longfellow  s  fancy  in  purple,  fantastic  flames  of 
The  Fire  of  Drift-Wood,  at  the  old  Devereux  farm  whose 
windows  look  over  the  bay : 

"  Not  far  away  we  saw  the  port, 

The  strange,  old-fashioned,  silent,  town, 
The  lighthouse,  the  dismantled  fort " 

"  .     .     .    from  out  the  fire 
Built  of  the  wreck  of  stranded  ships 

The  flames  would  leap  and  expire. 
And,  as  their  splendor  flashed  and  failed 

We  thought  of  wrecks  upon  the  main, 
Of  ships  dismasted,  that  were  hailed 

And  sent  no  answer  back  again." 


MARBLEHEAD,  1629-1649 

'  'Marvill  Head  is  a  place  which  lieth  four  miles  south  from  Salem,  and  is 
a  very  convenient  place  for  a  plantation;  especially  for  such  as  will  set  upon 
the  trade  of  fishing.  .  .  .  Here  be  a  good  harbor  for  boats  and  a  safe 
riding  for  ships." — NEW  ENGLANDS  PROSPECT,  1633. 

MARBLE  HARBOR  is  best  loved  of  the  old  fishing-towns. 
There  is  a  hint  of  far-away  Devonshire  in  the  manner  in 
which  the  fisher-folk  set  their  ' '  quaint  clusters  of  gray  houses- 
crowding  down  unto  the  harbor  s  edge."  Even  the  casual 
summer  visitor  "champions  to  the  death"  th3  odd  little 
village  which  betrays  its  thrilling  sea-history  in  every  nook 
and  corner;  salty  wharves  and  cobble-stones,  bewitching 
old-fashioned  gardens  where  unsea worthy  dories  and  buckets 
carry  a  blossoming  freight  of  warmest,  deepest  color ;  houses 
stand  cornerwise  on  the  amazing  lanes — paths  of  the  prime- 
val calf  followed  by  a  million  men  J — and  the  unexpected  is 
always  with  us.  Just  such  a  crooked  labyrinth  of  streets 
confronted  the  elegant  Sir  Henry  Frankland,  his  Majesty's 
new  Collector  of  Customs  and  his  liveried  servant ;  seeking 
refreshment  they  gladly  followed  the  direction  of  an  open- 
mouthed  urchin,  to  stand  off  on  the  "lorboard  tack"  till 
they  came  to  Moll  Pitcher's,  where  a  street  to  the  leeward 
curved  toward  the  shabby  inn.  (This  led  up  to  a  love 
episode  that  fascinated  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  in  one  of  his 
playful  moods,  and  more  than  one  grave  historian  has 
analyzed  its  touching  points.) 

On  the  following  morning,  Sir  Henry,  fro'm  his  case- 
ment, caught  sight  of  the  graceful,  untutored  maiden 

1  The  Calf-Path,  by  Sam  Walter  Foss. 
142 


Marblehead 


Agnes  Surriage,  swinging  a  heavy 
wooden  water-bucket  round  her 
head,  then  come  tripping  down 
the  path  singing  a  snatch  of  an 
old  ballad  sweeter  than  the  note 
of  the  bobolink.  From  the  well 
here,  the  blushing  girl  brought 
sparkling  water  in  a  clumsy 
wooden  biggin  to  quench  Sir 
Harry's  thirst  after  a  dusty  ride 
from  Boston  town  on  fort  inspec- 
tion duty.  In  yonder  "berryin' 
gr-run"  Ag'  spoke  her  mind  to 
loyal  Job  Redden  when  taking  a 
bit  o'  a  tur'-rn  after  meeting. T 

The  br-r-r  caught  in  the  speech 
of  this  fishermaiden  and  of  Flood 
Ireson  whose  "horrt  was  never 
horrd"  is  like  an  ever-recurring 
minor  theme  of  the  sea.  It  may 
be  that  the  pioneer  fisher-folk  of 
Guernsey  and  Jersey  found  some 
responsive  chord  on  this  side  of  the 
stormy  Atlantic  in  the  never  ceas- 
ing swash  of  water  against  our 
marble-stone,  like  unto  the  music 
of  the  sea  beneath  the  lime-stone 
cliffs  of  dear  home-isles,  and  thus 
chose  to  plant  here  at  Peach's 
Point  their  first  rough  cabins. 

Old  Burying  Hill  is  an  unusually 


1  Agnes  Surriage,    by   Edwin 
Bynner. 


Lassetter 


MARBLEHEAD 

LANDMARKS:  Abbot  Hall.  Mug- 
ford  Monument.  Mansion  of  Colonel 
Jeremiah  Lee  (1786),  169  Washing- 
ton St.  Hon.  Robert  ("  King  ") 
Hooper  house,  now  Y.  M.  C.  A. 
Building,  Hooper  St.  St.  Michael's 
Church  (1714).  Dr.  Elisha  Story 
house.  A  "  Son  of  Liberty  "  who 
spilt  tea.  Birthplace  of  Judge  Story, 
104  Washington  St.  Old  Town 
House  (1727),  the  "  Fanueil  Hall" 
of  Marblehead.  Site  Public  Whip- 
ping Post.  Bowen  house,  corner 
Mugford  St.,  below  Pickett  and 
Washington.  Schoolmaster  Feter — 
Jayne  —  Prentiss  —  General  Sam. 
Avery  house,  Mugford  St.  "  Com- 
mittee of  Safety  "  and  "  Tuesday 
Evening  Club  "  met  here.  Metho- 
dist Church,  organized  1791.  Major 
John  Pedrick  house,  Pickett  St. 
Marston-Watson  house.  Joseph 
Hooper — Chief  Justice  Samuel  Se- 
wall  house  (1770),  Pleasant  St. 
Captain  Thomas  Gerry  house. 
Birthplace  Elbridge  Gerry,  "Signer," 
and  Vice-President  U.  £.,  Governor 
Massachusetts.  North  Church. 

Birthplace  Captain  Josiah  Perkins 
Cressy,  High  St.,  Navigator  in  the 
"  Flying  Cloud,"  noted  for  speed 
between  New  York  and  San  Fran- 
cisco. Colonel  Azor  Orne  house, 
Franklin  and  Washington  Sts.  Par- 
son Barnard  house,  Franklin  St. 
"  The  Old  Brig,"  Orne  St.  Site  of 
Fountain  Inn,  Orne  St.  Old  Fort 
Washington.  Burying  Hill.  Sail- 
ors' Monument,  erected  by  Marble- 
head  Seamen's  Charitable  Society. 
Powder  House  (1755),  Ferry  Road  or 
Green  St.  Skipper  Ireson  house, 
Circle  St.  Mugford  house,  Back  St. 
Gen.  Glover  house,  Glover  St.  Old 
Tavern,  corner  Glover  and  Front  Sts. 
Colonel  Jonathan  Glover,  or  "  The 
Eagle  "  house,  Front  St.  Old  Cus- 
tom house.  Tucker  house  (1640). 
Tucker  Wharf.  Crocker  Park. 
"  Bartoll's  Head."  Fort  Sewall. 
Gerry  Island.  Peach's  Point.  Cod- 
den's  Hill.  Naugus  Head.  Com- 


H4  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 


modore  Tucker  house,  near  Catholic 
Church,  Our  Lady,  Star  of  the  Sea. 

MARBLEHEAD  GREAT  NECK 
Marblehead      Light.       Corinthian 
Yacht  Club  House.     Eastern  Yacht 


Club       House. 

("  Shoreman  ") 


John       Andrews 
Samoset  House  " 


attractive  spot  to  the  reflective 
mind.  Seated  under  the  knotted 
limbs  of  a  wind-swept  tree,  near  the 
carved  slates  that  have  weathered 
wintry  gales  of  two  centuries,  one 
may  gaze  across  the  green  dis- 
mantled fort  to  Little  Harbor 
dotted  with  sails,  and  beyond 
Gerry's  Island  (where  Parson  William  Walton  built  his 
parsonage)  to  the  Great  Harbor,  made  picturesque  by  the 
light-house  on  jagged  rocks. 


(1762).  The  Churn  or  Spouting 
Horn.  Castle  Rock.  View  Half- 
Way  Rock.  Custom  for  fishermen 
to  throw  coin  on  this  rock  for  "  good 
luck." 


The  Oliver  House,  Smith  Point,  Marblehead,  and  Crowninshield  Estate  on 
Peach's  Point.     Scene  of  the  First  Settlement. 

To  pass  away  the  long  evenings,  sailors  spun  yarns  of 
smugglers  and  pirates  hiding  their  identity  as  honest  guests 
at  the  Fountain  Inn;  of  the  clever  capture  of  the  captain 
of  the  band,  in  1704;  of  the  strange  adventures  of  Marble- 


Marblehead  145 

head's  Robinson  Crusoe,  one  Philip  Ashton,  Jr.,  who,  seized 
by  pirates  on  the  high  seas,  escaped  by  concealing  himself 
in  the  forest  on  a  nameless  island,  where  pirates  had  landed, 
tormented  by  want  of  fresh  water  and  where  he  was  eventu- 
ally picked  up  by  bluff  Captain  Dove,  of  Salem.  Some- 
times on  a  howling  night,  just  as  the  story-teller  had  reached 
a  dramatic  point  and  the  cutlasses  of  the  boarding-party 
were  close  to  the  throats  of  their  victims,  the  boom  of  a  gun 
signalling  a  boat  in  distress  would  recall  to  his  memory  the 
white  wizard  of  Marblehead;  then  he  would  anchor  at  the 
most  thrilling  point  and  call  out  "Belay  there!  harken  to 
the  voice  of  '  Old  Dimond ',  shrieking  orders  to  the  vessels  as 
he  'beats  about'  among  the  graves  on  Burial  Hill."  No  one 
dared  to  question  "Old  Dimond's"  power  to  save  from 
shipwreck;  his  "black  art"  became  a  terror  to  evil-doers 
working  good  and  never  harm.  It  was  said  that  he 
"charmed"  the  fellow  who  had  stolen  a  poor  widow's  wood, 
compelling  him  to  walk  all  night  with  a  log  of  wood  on  his 
back.1 

Early  New  England  was  fed  on  the  most  uncanny  super- 
stitions, and  Marblehead  absolutely  enjoyed  witches;  no 
judge  ever  meddled  with  Mammy  Red  for  causing  the  butter 
churned  by  her  enemies  to  turn  to  blue  wool ;  it  was  left  for 
Salem  to  harass  their  town- witch,  and  the  sons  of  Marble- 
head's  exclusive  and  brawny  skippers  delighted  to  snub  a 
Salem  boy  and  "rock  him  around  the  corner." 

Marbleheaders  were  held  in  admiration  by  the  other  colo- 
nists for  their  brusque  independence  and  extraordinary  powers 
of  fortitude.  From  Marblehead  in  June,  '75,  Colonel  John 
Glover  marched  forth  at  the  head,  of  a  daring  company  of 

1  We  are  indebted  to  the  Honorable  Samuel  Roads,  Jr.,  for  the  preserva- 
tion of  Marblehead  legends  of  sea  and  shore.  As  a  boy  having  indifferent 
health  and  kept  from  school,  he  listened  instead  to  the  yarns  of  old  salts, 
often  above  ninety  years  of  age,  which  are  woven  into  his  History  and 
Traditions  of  Marblehead. 


146  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

soldiers.  Time  has  not  dimmed  that  march  or  his  other 
exploits  by  sea  and  land;  the  "amphibious"  regiment,  as 
Irving  called  it,  was  chosen  to  row  Washington  across  the 
Delaware  and  lead  the  advance  at  the  battle  of  Trenton. 


Marblehead  Harbor. 

"  My  winged  boat 
A  bird  afloat." 

Commodore  Tucker  secured  forty  prizes  of  war  and  the 
Marblehead  fleet  of  privateers  won  many  a  sea-fight.  The 
first  British  flag  was  struck  to  Captain  Manly  as  he  sailed 
under  the  Pine  Tree  flag  of  Massachusetts,  and  in  Nantasket 
Roads  Captain  Mugford  defiantly  ran  off  with  a  prize  in  the 
face  of  the  English  fleet. 


Marblehead  147 

When  Colonel  Leslie,  of  the  Royal  army,  sailed  down  from 
the  Castle  in  Boston  Harbor  to  seize  Salem' s  supplies  and 
landed  on  Homan's  Beach,  Major  John  Pedrick  galloped  to 
Salem  with  the  startling  news.  He  was  one  of  sixty  mer- 
chants of  Marblehead  whose  vessels  swept  the  main  and  his 
generosity  supplied  much-needed  stores  to  the  new  and 
quickly  formed  American  government.  It  was  he  who  in- 
structed his  son  not  to  take  a  single  copper  in  return  for  his 
services  as  a  soldier,  and  requested  his  daughters  to  quilt 
him  a  belt  with  silver  coin.  The  opulent  Robert  Hooper, 
of  grave  and  stately  depute,  hugely  enjoyed  being  dubbed 
"King"  by  the  fishermen  for  his  noble  efforts  on  their  be- 
half during  the  war. 

A  batch  of  fearless  patriots  Colonel  Jeremiah  Lee,  Colonel 
Orne,  and  Elbridge  Gerry,  "the  Signer,"  all  of  Marblehead, 
had  a  wonderful  escape  from  the  military  clutches  of  the 
British,  by  hiding  in  a  cornfield  behind  Wetherby's  Black 
Horse  Tavern  after  the  meeting  of  the  Province  Committee 
of  Safety  and  Supplies.  Colonel  Lee  died  from  the  expos- 
ure. In  a  long  list  of  recorded  guests  at  the  Lee  mansion 
appear  the  names  of  Presidents  Washington,  Monroe,  and 
Jackson,  and  General  Lafayette.  Many  of  the  pre-Revolu- 
tionary  houses  are  well-preserved.  Tories  did  not  find  life 
here  free  from  agitation,  and  one,  hotly  pursued  by  angry 
citizens,  took  refuge  in  the  Bowden  house;  Mrs.  Bowden 
said:  " Gentlemen,  I  assure  you  the  man  you  seek  is  not  in 
the  house.  On  my  honor,  he  is  not  tinder  this  roof;  if  you 
persist,  you  will  cause  the  death  of  my  daughter."  The 
search  was  given  up.  The  escaping  Tory  was,  indeed,  not 
under  the  roof,  but  on  top  behind  the  chimney. 

Dr.  Story,  of  Marblehead,  "Son  of  Liberty,"  and  Samuel 
Gore,  of  Boston,  made  a  special  capture  by  gagging  the 
sentinels  of  the  gun-house  near  Boston  Common  and  carried 


Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 


off  the  brass  cannon  to  the  American  lines;  these  field- 
pieces,  inscribed  as  The  Hancock,  sacred  to  Liberty,  and  The 
Adams,  served  through  the  war,  and  are  comfortably  pen- 
sioned at  Bunker  Hill  Monument.1 

An  interesting  piece  of  the  past  is  St.  Michael's  Church 


The  Churn,  Marblehead  Neck. 

"  The  sea  drew  its  breath  in  hoarse  and  deep, 

And  the  next  vast  breaker 
Curled  its  edge,  gathering  itself  for  a  mightier  leap." 

with  its  ancient  English  frame  and  chandeliers,  the  oldest 
Episcopal  church  building  in  New  England.  One  of  its 
rectors,  the  Rev.  David  Mossom,  afterwards  settled  in  Vir- 

1  Mistress  Dorothy  Devereux,  the  heroine  of  the  Revolutionary  romance 
From  Kingdom  to  Colony  lived  in  Marblehead,  the  birthplace  of  the  author, 
Mrs.  Mary  Devereux  Watson,  a  daughter  of  Gen.  I.  H.  Devereux  of  the 
Marblehead  Devereuxs  of  1636. 


Marblehead  149 

ginia,  performed  the  marriage  ceremony  between  George 
Washington  and  widow  Custis. 

"Church  to  reverend  memories  dear, 
Quaint  in  desk  and  chandelier, 
Bell  whose  century-rusted  tongue 
Burials  tolled  and  bridals  sung." 

In  contrast  to  sedate  history  are  the  gay  summer  colonies 
along  shore.  Picturesque  villas  have  superseded  the  fish- 
flakes  of  John  Pedrick  and  Joshua  Coombs,  first  settlers  on 
the  ' '  Great  Neck. ' '  Pleasure -craft  domineer  over  the  once 
all-powerful  fishing-smacks.  No  more  beautiful  scene  is 
there  in  the  wide  world  than  the  shifting  light  and  shadow 
over  old  Marblehead.  At  sunset,  incoming  sloops  drop  rest- 
less sails,  displaying  stripped  masts  and  black  hulls  against 
the  golden  sky.  A  purple  haze  spreads  over  the  glimmering 
landscape  and  all  the  town,  from  the  top  of  highest  spire  to 
edge  of  low  barnacle-studded  wharves,  becomes  one  with 
the  darkening  water;  a  tiny  launch  leaves  in  her  wake  a 
yellow  trail  of  sea-fire  between  swinging  lights  aboard  har- 
bored vessels;  Marblehead  Light  gleams  from  the  Point, 
and  Hospital  Point  Light  from  Beverly;  like  dim  stars 
twinkle  the  twin  lights  of  Baker's  Island,  while  Minot's  re- 
volves in  numbers.  You  wander  to  the  eastern  shore  of 
Great  Neck.  The  red  disk  of  the  full  moon  rising  out  of  a 
quiet  sea  presently  flings  a  ribbon  of  molten  silver  quite  to 
your  feet,  cheering  the  becalmed  fisherman  as  he  rows  his 
tiny  shallop  into  port. 


SALEM  (NAUMKEAG),  1626 

HE  happiest  entrance  to  Salem  is  by  the  quaint 
and  winding  highway  from  Marble  Harbor, 

"Sweetly  along  the  Salem  road, 
Bloom  of  orchard  and  lilac  showed." 

He  who  rides  up  beautiful  Lafayette  Street 
under  the  Derby  elms  and  from  Town  House  Square  down 
"  Old  Paved  Street,"  may  read  here  and  there  Salem's  distinc- 
tion in  colonial  annals  and  moreover  her  proud  Revolution- 
ary record.  The  fine  Armory  1  of  the  Salem  Cadets  with  its 
beautiful  oak-panelled  Banqueting  Hall  and  the  annual 
"camp"  at  old  Boxford,  are  tokens  of  an  unfailing  patriot- 
ism. In  1789,  the  bars  were  let  down  in  the  grassy  lane, 
now  Lafayette  Street,  for  President  Washington  to  ride 
through  on  his  white  charger;  while  he  listened  to  the 
formal  welcome  of  Senator  Goodhue,  the  artist  Mclntire 
—whose  charming  ornamental  doorways  and  fanciful  gate 
posts  are  the  hall-marks  of  his  day — sketched  Washington's 
profile,  which  you  may  see  at  the  unique  Essex  Institute.2 

1  The  Armory  (at  136  Essex  Street)  was  the  Colonel  Francis  Peabody 
mansion.      In  the  Banqueting  Hall  Prince  Arthur  was  entertained  on  the 
occasion  of  his  American  trip  to  attend  the  funeral  of  George  Peabody, 
the  banker.     The  North  Church  contains  a  La  Farge  window  to  the  mem- 
ory of  Colonel  Peabody  and  his  wife. 

On  this  site  originally  stood  the  house  of  Emanuel  Downing.  It  was 
inherited  by  his  daughter,  who  married,  first,  the  famous  "  Fighting  Joe" 
(Captain  Joseph  Gardner)  of  the  Narragansett  wars;  second,  Governor 
Simon  Bradstreet,  who  died  at  Salem  at  ninety-five  years,  having  out- 
lived all  the  Winthrop  company. 

2  The  Essex  Institute  was  founded  in  1848  by  the  Union  of  the  Essex 
Historical  Society  (first  president,  Dr.  Edward  A.  Holyoke,  who  presided 
on  his  hundredth  birthday  at  a  dinner  of  the  Massachusetts  Medical 

150 


Salem 


The  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act,  in 
1765,  was  celebrated  in  Salem  by 
a  great  display  of  fireworks.  Ben- 
jamin Thompson  (later  Count 
Rumford),1  was  injured  by  the  ex- 
plosion of  some  detonating  mix- 
ture which  he  was  preparing  for 
the  joyous  occasion  at  the  shop  of 
his  master,  John  Appleton. 

Early  in  February,  1775,  the 
veterans  of  Essex  County  scented 
powder  in  the  air,  for  electric  cur- 
rents of  Revolutionary  thought 


SALEM 

LANDMARKS:  City  Hall;  contains 
Frothingham's  copy  of  Stuart's  full- 
length"  Washington  inNewportTown 
Hall,"  presented  by  Abiel  Abbot  Low 
to  his  native  city,  Salem;  portrait  of 
Andrew  Jackson  by  Maj.  R.  E.  W. 
Earl;  contract  (1638)  concerning 
enlargement  of  First  Church,  proba- 
bly written  by  Governor  Endicott, 
with  signatures  of  John  Woodbury, 
William  Hathorne,  Lawrence  Leach, 
Roger  Conant,  and  John  Pickering. 
Stone  Court  House  contains  deeds  and 
wills.  Brick  Court  House,  contain- 
ing witch  documents  and  witch  pins ; 
Hunt's  portrait  of  Chief-Justice 
Shaw;  portrait  of  Rufus  Choate  by 
Joseph  Ames  presented  by  Gen.  B.  F. 
Butler  hangs  in  the  Law  Library. 
Town  Hall  or  Market  House,  Derby 


Society)  and  the  Essex  County  Natural  History  Society.  The  renowned 
society  is  largely  the  work  of  Dr.  Henry  Wheatland.  The  present  presi- 
dent is  Robert  S.  Rantoul.  The  collection  of  portraits,  water-colors  of 
ships  illustrating  the  naval  architecture  of  Salem,  the  many  colonial 
properties  of  her  worshipful  governors  and  other  Salem  worthies,  as  well 
as  the  natural  history  collection  now  included  in  the  Peabody  Academy  of 
Science  founded  by  George  Peabody  of  London,  is  described  in  the  Visitors' 
Guide  of  the  Essex  Institute. 

1  The  "Rumford  Roaster,"  one  of  the  practical  inventions  of  this 
remarkable  man,  was  the  favorite  oven  of  Salem  housekeepers  for  cooking 
to  a  turn  their  delicate  "dier"  bread  (sponge  cake),  the  art  being  a  part 
of  the  education  of  every  properly  brought  up  young  lady  of  old  Salem, 
as  well  as  her  admittance  to  the  select  circle  of  the  "Misses  Wither- 
spoon's"  dame-school  in  the  little  Gray  house  in  Essex  Street.  Very 
aristocratic  was  this  symposium  kept  by  these  fine  old  gentlewomen — so 
dear  to  Eleanor  Putnam's  childhood — with  their  elegant  manners  of  days 
gone  by.  "At  recess  the  girls  were  not  allowed  to  romp  rudely  out  of 
doors,  but  amused  themselves  with  A  Ship  from  Canton  and  The  Genteel 
Lady.  The  boys  were  told  to  go  out  into  the  yard  and  shout.  Miss 
Emily  seemed  to  think  that  boys  must  go  somewhere  to  shout,  as  a  whale 
comes  up  to  blow.  The  boys  never  did  shout.  They  were  too  much  de- 
pressed by  the  gentility  of  everything;  they  generally  sat  on  a  deserted 
hencoop  and  banged  their  heels."  "Another  indispensable  passport  to 
Salem  society  of  fifty  years  ago  was  my  grandmother's  cashmere  shawl," 
says  Miss  Silsbee. 


52  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 


The  Assembly  Hall  (I'/dp),  Salem.     Residence  of  Airs.  John  Bertram. 

President  Washington  and  the  Marquis  de  Lafayette  attended  balls  here, 
"  went  to  assembly,  where  there  was  at  least  a  hundred  handsome  and  well- 
dressed  ladies." — DIARY  OF  WASHINGTON. — "  Mais  ce  fut  a  Salem  que 
V eclat  de  sa  reception  se  fit  particulierement  remdrquer." — VOYAGE  DU 
GENERAL  LAFAYETTE  AUX  ETATS-UNIS  D'AMERIQUE. 


Square,  opened  1817  on  visit  Presi- 
dent Monroe.  Narbonne  house,  71 
Essex  St.  Witch  House  or  Judge 
J  onathan  Corwin  house  ( 1 634) ,  Essex 
and  North  Sts.  Captain  John  Ber- 
tram house,  now  Public  Library, 
Essex  and  Monroe  Sts.  Benjamin 
Goodhue  house,  403  Essex  St. 
Joshua  Ward  house,  148  Washing- 
ton St.;  Washington  lodged  here. 
Ingersollhouse,  54  Turner  St. ,"  House 
of  the  Seven  Gables."  "  Grimshaw 
House,"  53  Charter  St.;  home  of 
Sophia  Amelia  Peabody;  house  of 
Hawthorne's  courtship.  Haw- 


were  flashing  between  Concord, 
Boston,  and  Salem.  Cannon  were 
being  mounted  at  the  blacksmith's 
just  across  the  North  Bridge.  ' '  The 
regulars  are  marching  on  us  from 
Marblehead!"  had  scarcely  passed 
from  pew  to  pew  in  excited  under- 
tones at  afternoon  meeting,  before 
the  crisp  snowcrust  was  crackling 


Revolutionary  Salem 


under  the  tramp,  tramp  of  Colonel 
Leslie's  regiment.  His  congrega- 
tion with  one  accord  followed  Par- 
son Barnard  from  the  North  Church 
to  the  bridge.  The  draw  had  been 
raised,  and  two  gondolas,  in  which 
the  British  attempted  to  cross,  were 
quickly  scuttled  by  John  Felt  and 
James  Barr,  defiant  of  bayonet 
pricks.  Parson  Barnard  then  in- 
terfered for  peace  on  the  -Lofd's 
Day;  Colonel  Leslie,  reading  de- 
termination in  the  faces  about 
him,  while  Colonel  Timothy  Pick- 
ering r  drew  up  his  men  on  the 
other  side,  gave  his  word  that  he 
would  advance  only  thirty  rods  be- 
yond the  bridge,  and,  as  McFingal 
tells  the  story,  the  bold  battalion 

"  Marched  o  'er  a  bridge,  in  open  sight 
Of  several  Yankees  armed  for  fight, 
Then,  without  loss  of  time  or  men, 
Veered  round  for  Boston  back  again, 
And   found  so  well    their  projects 

thrive, 
That  every  soul  got  home  alive." 

In    Salem' s    infancy    a    cooling 
spring  bubbled  in  the  market-place, 


thorne's  House,  14  Mall  St  Haw- 
thorne's birthplace,  27  Union  St. 
Nathaniel  Silsbee  house,  remodelled,. 
94  Washington  Sq. ;  Daniel  Webster, 
Henry  Clay  entertained  here.  John 
Andrew  Safford  house  (1818),  13 
Washington  Sq.  Forester  house 
(Salem  Club),  29  Washington  Sq. 
Old  Daland  house  (1652).  Birthplace 
Nathaniel  Silsbee,  27-9  Daniels  St. 
Richard  Derby  house,  170  Derby  St.; 
oldest  brick  house  standi  ig  in 
Salem.  Fine  old  staircase.  Sec. 
Navy  Benjamin  W.  Crowninshield 
house,  180  Derby  St.;  Presi- 
dent Monroe  with  Commodores 
Perry  and  Bainbridge  entertained. 
Later  .General  James  Miller  residence,, 
hero  of  "Lundy's  Lane" ;  Collector  of 
the  Port ;  now  Old  Ladies'  Home,  gift 
of  Robert  Brookhouse ;  open  Wednes- 
day and  Saturday  afternoons.  Wil- 
liam Gray  house,  on  site  of  the  Sun 
Tavern.  Essex  Coffee  House,  now 
the  Essex  House.  King's  Arm 
Tavern  and  "  Mansion  House,"  site 
occupied  by  the  West  Block.  Ar- 
mory of  Salem  Cadets,  136  Essex  St. 
Ezekiel  Hersey  Derby  house,  corner 
Lafayette  St.  and  Ocean  Ave.  Gal- 
lows or  Witch  Hill.  South  Meeting- 
House;  steeple  after  Christopher 
Wren  by  Mclntire.  Hamilton  Hall. 
Broad  Street  Burying-Ground.  John 
Pickering  house,  birthplace  Tim- 
othy Pickering  (1660),  18  Broad 
St.  County  Jail  from  1763-1813,  4 
Federal  St. ;  beams  from  old  Jail 
where  witches  were  confined. ;  resi- 
dence of  Abner  C.  Goodell,  formerly 
editor  of  the  Province  Laws. 
Salem  Athenaeum  (1810),  outgrowth 
of  "  Social  Library,"  1760.  Plum- 
mer  Hall.  New  Normal  School.  The^ 
Willows,  the  city  park.  Nineteen 
European  white  willows  planted 
1801.  "  The  Pavilion."  View  outer 
harbor  and  open  sea,  Juniper  Point. 


1  Timothy  Pickering  became  quartermaster- general,  negotiator  of  the 
treaty  with  Six  Nations,  1791 ;  Postmaster-General,  Secretary  of  War,  and 
Secretary  of  State,  successively,  in  Washington's  administration;  member 
of  the  "Essex  Junto,"  the  name  given  by  Hancock  to  leaders  in  New 
England  Federalism,  among  whom  were  Fisher  Ames,  the  Lowells,  Cabot^ 
and  Theophilus  Parsons. 


Hall  with  Ancient  Staircase. 

House  (365  Essex  Street,  Salem),  built  by  Joseph  Cabot  (1748),  Home 

of  the  Hon.  William  Crowninshield  Endicott,  Secretary  of  War 

under  President  Cleveland.     Residence  of  Daniel  Low,  Esq. 


154 


The  Town  Pump  155 

the  very  same  rill  whose  rythmic  tales  of  strange  and  won- 
derful events  Hawthorne  interpreted  for  us  out  of  the  nose 
of  the  Town  Pump.  Sparkling  hospitality  did  the  spring 
offer  to  Roger  Conant,  to  whom  belongs  the  high  honor 
of  being  the  first  planter  of  the  Colony  of  Massachusetts 
Bay ;  he,  with  the  western  adventurers,  much  disliking  the 
occupation  of  fishing  at  Cape  Ann,  found  this  goodly  spot, 
the  Indian  Nakum  Keke,  or  "  Nahum  Kirke,  by  interpreta- 
tion, The  Bosom  of  Consolation."  Then  to  the  spring  came 
austere  and  loving  Master  Endicott,  of  courage  bold,  "a  fit 
instrument  to  begin  this  wilderness  work."  This  first  emi- 
gration sent  out  by  the  Massachusetts  Company  had  some 
bickering  with  the  adventurers;  fortunately  "the  expecta- 
tion of  a  dangerous  jarre"  was  averted  by  our  prudent 
gentleman  Roger  Conant,  and  in  remembrance  of  a  peace, 
Nahum  Kirke  was  changed  to  Salem, — "a  pitty,  though 
upon  a  faire  ground,  "  wrote  Rev.  John  White  to  England  in 
his  Planter's  Plea. 

Shortly  arrived  two  hundred  planters  more  with  Francis 
Higginson.  He  enthusiastically  describes  the  advantages 
of  the  Plantation  where  the  abundance  of  corn1  is  a  "wonder- 
ment," and  of  his  cordial  welcome  to  the  fair  house,2  newly 
built  for  the  Governor  (Endicott),  after  the  Talbotand  Lion's 
Whelp's  "  speedy  passage  of  six  weeks  and  three  days.  " 

On  the  twelfth  of  June,  1630,  there  was  a  great  bustle  in 
the  market-place,  and  the  people  prepared  to  welcome 
Governor  Winthrop,  who  had  anchored  in  the  Arbella,  inside 

1  Higginson  says:  "The  setting  of  13  gallons  of  corn  increased  52  hogs- 
heads, every  hogshead  holding  7  bushels  of  London  measure,  and  every 
bushel  was  sold  and  trusted  to  the  Indians  for  so  much  beaver  as  was 
worth  1 8  shillings."     That  they  "might  see  the  truth  of  it,"  he  sent  home 
many  ears  of  corn  of  divers  colors,  red,  blue,  and  yellow. 

2  Endicott' s  house  is  said  to  have  been  built  of  the  timbers  from  Roger 
Conant's  house  on  Cape  Ann,  and  some  of  these  were  later  incorporated  in 
a  house  on  the  corner  of  Court  and  Church  streets,  Salem. 


i56  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

Baker  Island  just  off  Bass-River-Side  (Beverly)  with  a  com- 
pany of  persons  of  rank,  bringing  the  Charter  of  the  Colony, 
closely  followed  by  the  Jewel.  Here  they  remained  over 
Sunday,  many  of  the  people  going  ashore  to  gather  wild 
strawberries,  and  on  Monday  warped  ship  into  the  inner 
harbor  of  Salem.  The  last  record  of  the  Company  in  Eng- 
land as  the  Arbella  rode  at  Cowes  is  merely  a  list  of  names, 
yet  each  shines  as  a  golden  mile-stone  at  the  opening  of  ye 
cross-roads  of  greatest  import  to  prosperity  in  New  England : 

"At  a  Court  of  Assistants  aboard  the  'Arbella,1  March  23,  1629. 

PRESENT. 

Mr.  John  Winthrop,  Governor,  Mr.  William  Coddington, 

Sir  Richard  Saltonstall,  Mr.  Thomas  Sharpe, 

Mr.  Isaac  Johnson,  Mr.  William  Vassall, 

Mr.  Thomas  Dudley,  Mr.  Simon  Bradstreet." 

This  record  is  in  the  handwriting  of  the  youngest  assist- 
ant, Simon  Bradstreet,  who,  in  the  ship's  stern,  beside  his 
bride  of  sixteen,  Ann  Dudley,  watched  old  England  fade 
away,  and,  with  statesmen  and  yeomen,  turned  resolutely 
to  sail  on  westward,  in  order  to  knit  the  bonds  of  a  new 
nation.  One  may  picture  two  fair  English  brides,  the  stately 
Lady  Arbella  and  pretty  Mistress  Ann,  attended  across 
Salem's  market-place  in  farthingales  and  high-heeled  shoes, 
accepting  the  spring's  liquid  refreshment  out  of  goblets  of 
birch-bark  from  their  be-ruffed  cavaliers. 

"There  are  maidens  discreet, 
And  saintliest  matrons;  but  none  so  sweet 
As  the  delicate  blush-rose  from  Lincoln's  old  hall, 
The  Lady  Arbella,  the  flower  of  them  all."  1 

1  The  story  of  Lady  Arbella,  daughter  of  the  Earl  of  Lincoln  and  wife 
of  Isaac  Johnson,  whose  death  soon  followed  the  stormy  voyage,  was 
written  by  Lucy  Larcom  for  the  two  hundred  and  fiftieth  anniversary 


Salem  157 

How  they  built  the  house  of  worship  nigh  to  the  spring, 
we  know,  and  that  the  teacher  Higginson  "wet  his  palm 
and  laid  it  on  the  brow  of  the  first  town-born  child. ' '  Within 


The  Charier  Street  Burying-Ground,  Salem,  or  "Burying  Point." 
Stone,  1673.      Graves  of  Governor  Bradstreet,  Rev.  John 
Higginson,  Chief-Justice  Lynde,  Judge  Hathorne. 


Oldest 


the  walls  of  this  tiny  Puritan  Church,1  the  most  tang- 
ible memory  we  have  (though  it  be  doubted  by  many  in 

of  the  landing  of  Winthrop  at  Salem.  The  Rev.  George  Phillips,  founder 
of  the  Phillips  family,  who  preached  daily  on  board  ship  and  catechised 
the  passengers,  also  lost  his  wife,  overcome  by  the  fatigue  of  the  voyage, 
and,  having  buried  her  beside  Lady  Arbella  Johnson,  departed  for  Water- 
town,  where  he  was  placed  as  pastor  at  thirty  pounds  a  year. 

1  The  frame  of  the  First  Puritan  Church  belongs  to  Essex  Institute. 
Early  preachers  were  Roger  Williams,  banished;  Hugh  Peters,  Edward 
Norris,  and  John  Higginson.  Its  lineal  successor  is  the  First  Church 
(Unitarian),  organized  1629,  at  the  corner  of  Essex  and  Washington 
streets,  possessing  early  records  and  fine  silver  cups  of  ancient  service, 
gifts  of  Sarah  Higginson,  Mary  Walcott,  William  and  Samuel  Browne. 


i5*>  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

authority  that  it  be  the  original  frame),  you  feel  quite  certain 
that  the  tything-man  could,  with  but  a  long  reach  of  the 
arm,  rap  on  the  heads  the  men  who  nodded  over  the  turning 
of  the  hour-glass  for  the  third  time,  or  draw  the  fox's  tail, 
tipping  his  wand  of  rebuke,  gently  across  the  faces  of 
drowsy  ' '  gude-wives. ' ' 

Two  of  Salem' s  titles  to  fame  were  anything  but  peaceful, 
and  her  name  seemed  a  misnomer  for  almost  a  century. 
The  charming  town  is  celebrated  for  witches,  old  and  modern. 
Reading  Mrs.  Spofford's  vivid  story  of  these  evil  days,  you 
can  but  shudder  at  "  one  of  the  greatest  mistakes  in  one  part 
of  the  earth"  with  the  denouement  of  innocent  victims  toiling 
up  "  Gallows  Hill."  Another  mistake,  quite  as  terrible,  was 
the  persecution  of  Quakers;  it  must  be  confessed  that  the 
scourging  and  branding  are,  as  elsewhere,  a  real  and  awful 
part  of  open  records ;  nevertheless,  one  must  not  forget  that 
at  first  the  Quakers  were  not  all  the  peaceful  broad-brims 
of  the  Whittier  type ;  many  were  wild  and  aggressive,  out- 
raging the  laws.1  The  centre  of  persecution  in  Salem  was 
in  the  vicinity  of  the  historic  glass  house  field  (on  the  Pea- 
body  line),  where  glass  was  made  before  1638  by  Lawrence 
Southwick  and  the  Conclines.  Meetings  were  held  at  the 
Southwick  house  by  Holden,  Copeland,  and  the  martyi 
Ledra;  here  Provided  Southwick  lived,  the  "Cassandra" 
of  Whittier' s  poem,  and  daughter  of  the  banished  Lawrence 
Southwick  and  his  wife,  who  fled  to  Shelter  Island,  where 
they  were  tenderly  cared  for  by  the  Sylvesters.2 

1  "A  Quakeress  in  Massachusetts  thrust  herself  upon  a  meeting-houss 
clad  in  sack-cloth,  and  with  her  face  painted  black  to  represent  the  coming 
of  the  small-pox." — The  United  States,  by  Goldwin  Smith. 

2  Abbott  Street  runs  through  the  Southwick  lot.     The  old  Quaker 
Burying-Ground  is  in  Peabody.     "Part  of  Salem  in  1700,"  by  Sidney 
Perley  in  The  Essex  Antiquarian,  July,  1902,  with  map.     "The  Manor  of 
Shelter  Island,"  Magazine  of  American  History,  vol.  xviii. 


Salem' s  Argosies 


It  is  good  to  leave  these  unvarnished  tales  and  peruse  the 
most  fascinating  chapter  in  Salem' s  annals,  delineating  her 
unequalled  commercial  history.  Salem' s  argosies  were  the 
first  to  float  our  flag  in  Russian 
ports,  in  Calcutta,  Madagas- 
car, Australia,  and  Bombay. 
In  1698,  she  had  twenty 
ketches,  two  ships,  and  a  bark 
in  commerce.  During  the 
Revolution  158  daring  ves- 
sels, ranging  the  seas  as  pri- 
vateers, cleared  445  British 
decks.  Little  is  recorded  of 
many  lonely  sea  -  battles 
fought  ship  to  ship  without 
witnesses.  One  thrilling  fight 
between  the  General  Pickering 
and  the  British  cutter  Achilles 
was  observed  by  thousands  of 
Spanish  spectators.1 


Last  of  the  Merchant-Ships  lying 
at  Derby  or  Long  Wharf. 


The  years  of  the  coming  and  going  of  the  great  Indiamen 
were  fraught  with  a  spirit  of  mystery  and  adventure  in 
Salem;  no  one  knew  how  many  encounters  with  pirates, 
with  cannibals,  and  perils  of  coral-reefs  were  ahead  of  the  bold 
sailors  just  up  and  away  with  a  "heave-ho"  at  the  anchor, 
leaving  behind  them  an  inevitable  silence  of  eighteen  months 
ere  the  ship's  bulging  clouds  of  canvas  were  sighted  off  Mar- 
blehead.  Sea-togs  and  sea-dogs,  and  the  most  delightful 
specimens  of  sailing-masters  who  ever  trod  deck,  filled  Derby 

1  Ross  Turner's  martial  portrayal  of  the  fight  between  the  Chesapeake 
and  Shannon  off  Salem  shore  hangs  in  the  East  Hall  of  the  Peabody 
Academy  of  Science,  surrounded  by  trophies  donated  by  early  sea-cap- 
tains who,  in  the  old  East  India  Museum's  fascinating  confusion,  seemed 
to  have  hustled  them  down  in  any  handy  vacant  space. 


160  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

and  Water  streets.  On  Long  Wharf,  swarthy,  tattooed 
sailors,  with  gold  rings  in  their  ears,  were  seen  month  after 
month  unloading  bales  of  merchandise,  saturated  with  the 
strange,  spicy  odors  of  the  East.  Sandal- wood  fans,  thou- 
sands of  pounds  of  rock-candy  and  amber  ginger  in  fas- 
cinating blue  jars  inclosed  in  split  bamboo  from  India;  or 
perhaps  the  Grand  Turk's  cargo  of  teas,  soft  China  crepe 
shawls,  India  shawls  so  fine  that  they  would  pass  through  a 
ring,  or  thin-edged  Canton  China — priceless  now — to  adorn 
Salem's  corner  cupboards.  She  opened  trade  with  China 
as  a  venture  of  Elias  Hasket  Derby's,  the  famous  merchant.1 
Seated  with  him  in  his  counting-room  one  day,  an  English 
captain,  who  had  been  set  adrift  by  a  mutinous  crew,  caught 
sight  of  his  own  vessel,  the  Amity,  in  the  offing.  Mr.  Derby 
immediately  had  one  of  his  brigs  manned,  and,  with  a  couple 
of  cannon,  recaptured  her  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye. 

One  may  imagine  how  these  kings  of  the  main  hugged 
themselves  with  delight  as  some  long-looked-for  ship's  cargo 
brought  unlooked-for  profits.  The  return  of  the  ship  Eliza, 
laden  with  one  million,  twelve  thousands  pounds  of  pepper, 
and  trifling  duties  of  $66,903.90,  might  have  made  the 
owner  sneeze,  but  he  only  chuckled  over  his  fine  secret  of 
pepper  growing  wild  on  the  west  coast  of  Sumatra,  discov- 
ered by  his  clever  captain,  Jonathan  Carnes,  selling  at  seven 
hundred  per  cent.,  to  say  nothing  of  the  profit  of  her  return 
trade-cargo  of  gin,  tobacco,  iron,  and  salmon.  Everything 
depended  on  a  wise  captain  who  "kept  his  weather-eye 
peeled"  in  strange  waters  and  on  strange  shores,  while  ex- 

1  In  the  cupola  of  the  house  of  Elias  Hasket  Derby,  on  the  southern 
corner  of  Washington  and  Lynde  streets,  a  space  was  left  in  the  blind  for 
a  spy-glass.  The  house  was  built  by  the  Hon.  Benjamin  Pickman  in  1764. 
Colonel  Benjamin  Pickman  having  made  a  fortune  exporting  codfish  to 
the  West  Indies,  naively  set  a  golden  effigy  of  his  fish  of  good  fortune  on 
the  side  of  each  stair  in  his  mansion  which  stands  in  the  rear  of  165 
Essex  Street. 


The  East  India  Museum 


161 


changing  cargos.  The  word  ' '  Salem' '  then  stood  for  the  entire 
outside  world  to  countless  savages.  Membership  in  the  East 
Indian  Marine  Society  flourished,  even  though  initiation  was 
only  to  those  who  had  "actually  navigated  around  the  Cape 


John  Andrew  House  (1818),  the  Safford  Residence, 

13  Washington  Square. 

Typical  Salem  merchant's  house  of  brick,  following  the  three-story  wooden 
period  of  late  eighteenth-century  style.  Tradition  says  that  John  Andrew, 
•merchant,  ballasted  these  tall,  hollow  pillars  with  rock  salt  from  Russia;  he 
was  the  uncle  of  "War-Governor"  Andrew. 

of  Good  Hope  or  Cape  Horn."  Peep  into  the  East  India 
Museum  a  century  ago;  there  is,  perhaps,  Captain  Derby, 
just  off  ship  Margaret,  proudly  laden  with  Japanese  trays 
and  cups,  our  first  introduction  to  the  incomparable  art 
of  Japan.  Another  bronzed  and  genial  soul  deposits  a 


1 62  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

treacherous  war-club  of  the  Fejee  Islander  or  a  spear  bristling 
with  sharks'  teeth,  from  which  he  narrowly  escaped  annihila- 
tion. Regard  the  Malay  cutlass,  memento  of  Captain  En- 
dicott's  narrow  escape  when  seized  by  the  natives  of  Sumatra 
and  rescued  by  Rajah  Po  Adam.  What  superstitions  may 
be  attached  to  yonder  eerie  twin  whistling- jar,  what  stories 
of  the  heart  belong  to  these  vases  and  bottles  from  the 
tombs  of  Peru,  quien  sabe? 

On  every  barrel  and  box  in  a  certain  corner  store  on 
Derby  Street,  fifty  years  or  more  ago,  perched  a  mariner, 
reeling  off  the  saltiest  salt  tales  of  Salem's  grand  old  times, 
accompanied  by  a  "  Shiver  my  timbers,"  a  hitch  and 
shake  of  the  head  at  our  sad  days,  with  nothing  but  land- 
lubbers about,  good  ships,  and  warehouses  rotting.  Be- 
hind the  sign  of  the  swinging  quadrant  repose  the  dusty 
shades  of  compasses,  chronometers,  and  sextants.  Stepping 
into  the  next  shop,  you  fortify  yourself  against  these  de- 
generate times  with  a  dish  of  gossip  and  one  of  Miss  Mandy's 
consoling  Black-jacks  tinged  with  an  elusive  burnt  flavor 
altogether  intentional.  "The  pre-historic  Gibraltar  is  the 
aristocrat  of  Salem  confectionery.  It  gazes  upon  choco- 
late and  sherbet  and  says,  'Before  you  were,  I  was;  after 
you  are  not,  I  shall  be.'  '  Be  careful  of  your  choice  of 
flavor — to  prefer  peppermint  to  lemon  is  a  sign  of  age — 
and  meditate  between  riotous  stickiness  and  delicate  creami- 
ness  on  a  prophecy  concerning  these  Two  Salem  Institu- 
tions: "Together,  Black-jack  and  Gibraltar  have  lived,  to- 
gether they  have  rejoiced  the  souls  of  generations.  Witch 
Hill  may  blow  away;  the  East  India  Museum  may  be 
swallowed  up  in  earth;  Charter  Street  Burying  Ground 
may  go  out  to  sea;  but  as  long  as  a  single  house  remains 
standing  in  Salem  village  so  long  will  Black-jack  and  Gibral- 
ter  retain  their  honorable  place  in  the  inmost  hearts  of 
Salem  people."  r 
1  Old  Salem,  bv  Eleanor  Putnam.  Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co. 


Chestnut  Street 


163 


Traces  of  the  power  and  good  taste  of  Salem' s  wealthy  sea 
merchants  remain  in  the  grand  old  mansions  in  the  Court 
End  of  the  town,  filled  with  treasures  brought  by  my  great- 
uncle  from  over-seas.  Standing  on  Chestnut  Street  at  dusk, 
shadowy  forms  of  powdered 
dames  pass  by  with  their  gal- 
lants, to  assemble  under 
some  one  of  these  spacious 
roofs  of  a  Derby — Pickering 
— Ward — Gray.  In  the  early 
days  of  this  century,  Hamil- 
ton Hall  constantly  blazed 
with  becoming  candlelight  in 
honor  of  persons  of  distinc- 
tion who  tarried  in  Salem. 

Adams,  Choate,  and  Web- 
ster plead  here,  and  Haw- 
thorne, musing,  walked  the 
streets  at  night,  drawing 
weird  inspiration  from  Salem 
fires.  By  day,  he  weighed 
and  gauged  in  the  custom 
house  '  performing  well  his  uncongenial  task.  "He  never 
could  add  up  figgers,"  says  the  oldest  inhabitant;  would  it 
not  have  been  passing  strange  if  he  could,  with  visions 
of  some  Great  Stone  Face,  a  living  Snow  Image  or  little 
Pearl  in  the  forest,  dancing  along  between  the  long  black 
columns!  Here  Hawthorne  feigned  to  have  unearthed 
the  manuscript  of  The  Scarlet  Letter.  It  was  Mr.  Fields  who 
divined  the  hiding-place  of  the  new  work,  so  hesitatingly 
handed  to  him  by  its  desponding  author  from  the  old 
bureau  in  the  house  in  Mall  Street.  Hawthorne's  most 


1  The  custom  house  was  built  in  1819. 


1 64  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

sanguine  moments  never  told  him  that  he  had  written  the 
greatest  of  American  romances,  or  that  Lowell  should  say 
to  Fields:  "I  don't  think  people  have  any  kind  of  a  true 
notion  yet  what  a  master  he  was,  God  rest  his  soul !  Shake- 
speare, I  am  sure,  was  glad  to  see  him  on  the  other  side."  J 
From  Salem  Common  or  Washington  Square,  near  Union 
Street,  lines  drawn  to  three  points  of  the  compass  will  touch 
the  birthplaces  of  Hawthorne,  Prescott,  and  Bowditch,  the 
mathematician. 2 

1  Letters  of  James  Russell  Lowell,  edited  by  Charles  Eliot  Norton. 

2  Salem  is  also  the  birthplace  of  the  Rev.  Jones  Very,  the  poet;  the 
Hon.  William  D.  Northend,  author  of  The  Bay  Colony;   of  William  W. 
Story,  the  sculptor;    of  Frank  W.  Benson,  one  of  the  "Ten  American 
Artists";   of  Maria  T.  Cummins,  author  of  The  Lamplighter;  Marianne 
C.  D.  Silsbee,  author  of  A  Half  Century  in  Salem,  and  Henry  Fitzhugh 
Waters,  of  genealogic  note. 


DANVERS  (SALEM  VILLAGE),  1628-1752 


IDE-SPREADING  Danvers'--so 
extensive  that  it  has  nine  railroad 
stations — is  one  of  the  lovely 
towns  of  New  England,  a  superb 
countryside  of  rivers,  brooks, 
hills,  dotted  with  rarest  wild 
flowers.  On  the  old  Boxford 
road  is  the  Nichols  homestead, 
now  Ferncroft  Inn,  named  by  Whittier.  The  ancient 
Ingersoll-Peabody  house,  now  the  Endicott  residence,  was 
the  country  home  of  the  Honorable  William  Crowninshield 
Endicott,  Secretary  of  War  under  Cleveland.  Among  his 
distinguished  visitors  was  the  Right  Honorable  Joseph 
Chamberlain,  his  son-in-law. 

1  The  Rea-  Putnam-  Fowler  house  (see  initial  letter)  in  the  Putnam- 
ville  section  of  Danvers,  is  one  of  the  oldest  houses  in  Essex  County, 
having  been  built  in  1636  by  Daniel  Rea.  It  was  purchased  by  Deacon 
Edmund  Putnam ;  his  granddaughter  married  Augustus  Fowler,  who  be- 
came a  recluse  and  naturalist  in  later  life;  his  paintings  of  native  birds 
are  in  the  Essex  Institute.  His  children's  children,  at  play,  still  model 
images  from  the  fine  potter's  clay  of  the  brook  bed,  romp  under  the 
great  willows,  with  sweethearts'  walk  in  the  narrow  acorn  path  of  "lovers' 
lane,"  and  wander  farther  on  under  the  Burley  chestnut  grove,  so  old 
that,  like  the  Waverley  Oaks,  no  one  knows  when  the  first  leaf  was  un- 
curled by  the  sun.  Crystal  springs  bubble  up  here  and  there;  two  beaten 
paths  lead  to  the  famous  "drinking  spring";  the  cans  of  milk  are  cooled 
in  the  "milk  spring,"  and  the  cattle  luxuriate  in  their  own  particular 
spring  in  the  barn.  On  the  farm  are  traces  of  an  artificial  canal  for 
irrigation,  of  an  ancient  brickyard  and  a  chocolate  mill.  Up  the  road  is 
the  Squire  Elias  Putnam  house,  the  birthplace  of  Dr.  A.  P.  Putnam, 
president  of  the  Danvers  Historical  Society,  and  Judge  A.  A.  Putnam, 
of  Uxbridge.  Deacon  Samuel  Fowler,  brother  of  Augustus,  had  a 
charming  old  flower-garden  much  admired  by  Whittier. 

165 


166  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 


DANVERS 

LANDMARKS:  Page  House  at 
Square.  Old  Berry  Tavern.  His- 
torical Society  Rooms  in  Perry's 
Block.  Peabody  Institute,  Sylvan 
St.  First  Church,  Danvers  Centre. 
Hathorne  (Asylum)  Hill. 
Israel  Putnam's  birthplace. 


Yet  with  all  its  charms  Salem  Village  must  have  been  a 
weird  place  to  live  in,  some  two  hundred  years  ago.  The 
reputed  witches  of  the  Old  World  be- 
gan to  sail  by  on  broomsticks  with 
startling  frequency  "from  Chelsea 
Beach  to  Misery  Isles."  Women  and 
children,  brought  up  on  the  literally 
fearful  Day  of  Doom  and  kindred 
doleful  Wiggles  worth  literature,  en- 
forced by  Fox's  sombre  Book  of  Mar- 
tyrs, clutched  at  a  brand  -  new 
superstition ;  and  though  good  Parson 
Higginson,  in  1630,  had  perceived  in 
Salem  no  cloven  hoof,  or  midnight 
hags  hugging  coal-black  cats,  only 
"many  lyones"  and  other  terrible 
monsters,  yet,  in  1692,  curious  ap- 
paritions ran  ridiculous  riot,  creating 
sorrow  and  despair  in  many  a  worthy 
family.  There  is  a  house  yet  standing 
in  Danvers  from  which  a  witch,  close- 
Hoimes's  bolted  in  a  garret,  disappeared  by  Sa- 
tanic influence !  Her  friends  dared  not 
reveal  their  part  in  her  escape,  lest  they  too  be  shackled  in 
Boston  jail  with  aged  Rebecca  Nurse, i  the  excellent  Susannah 
Martin  of  Amesbury,  Sarah  Good  and  her  innocent  child 
(who,  by  some  occult  power,  was  said  to  bite  the  girls 
Elizabeth  Parris  and  Abigail  Williams),  and  also  the  Rev. 
George  Burroughs,2  "declared  by  eight  confessed  witches  a 

1  Rebecca  Nurse  (or  Nourse)  was  of  an  old  Huguenot  family  and  a 
woman  of  intellect;  possessing  a  wide  sympathy  and  an  understanding 
of  medicine,  she  devoted  herself  to  the  sick.  A  famous  descendant 
is  Miss  Elizabeth  Nourse,  recently  elected  Societaire  of  the  Societe 
Nationale  des  Beaux  Arts,  an  unprecedented  honor.  Ten  of  her  paint- 
ings were  shown  in  the  Salon  of  1902,  a  tribute  to  the  originality,  sin- 
cerity, and  poetry  of  her  pictures  of  the  humble  peasant  life. 

3  The  Rev.  George  Burroughs  lived  on  the  estate  of  Oak  Knoll,  where 


General 
Colonel 

Jesse  Putnam  house.  Old  Nichols 
Homestead,  now  Ferncroft  Inn. 
Oak  Knoll.  Home  of  Whittier. 
Gov.  Endicott  pear-tree.  Prince 
house.  Clark  house.  "  King," 
Hooper-Collins  house.  The  Lin- 
dens. Site  of  Parris  house.  Re- 
becca Nurse  house.  Folly  or 
Browne's  Hill  described  by  Haw- 
thorne; site  Hon.  Wm.  Browne 
mansion ;  Browne  descendants  inter- 
married with  the  Washingtons  of 
Virginia.  Wadsworth  Cemetery; 
graves  of  Elizabeth,  wife  Rev.  Sam- 
uel Parris,  of  Putnams,  Clarkes, 
Hobarts;  inscriptions  in  Essex  Anti* 
quarian  for  January,  1902. 

Supplementary :  Historic  Danvers. 
F.  E.  Moynahan,  Publisher.  Browne's 
Hill,  by  Ezra  D.  Hines. 
Broomstick  Train, 


Danvers 


167 


leader  in  their  infernal  sacraments."  Members  of  the  church 
who  opposed  punishment  were  excommunicated;  Captain 
Joseph  Putnam,  father  of  Israel  Putnam,  kept  a  horse 
constantly  saddled,  expecting  that  he  too  would  be  accused 


The  Homestead  of  Judge  Holten,  a  Revolutionary  Patriot,  Danvers 
(near  the  Middleton  line) . 

on  account  of  his  opposition  to  the  "Great  Delusion."  For 
the  same  reason,  Colonel  Dudley  Bradstreet,  of  Andover, 
left  his  home  for  several  weeks. 

We  are  fain  to  believe  that  the  suspected  witches  were 
women  of  unusual  strength  of  character.  Behold,  in  suc- 
ceeding generations,  what  heroes  Danvers  sent  to  the 
front  !  The  daring  intrepidity  of  the  boy,  Israel  Putnam,1 

Whittier  passed  some  happy  summers  amid  bowery  orchards  and  under 
his  Poet's  Pagoda  of  oaks,  elms,  spruce,  and  hemlocks. 

1  The  room  where  General  Israel  Putnam  was  born  is  kept  intact.    Drake 


1 68  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

was  the  talk  of  all  Essex.  The  corner  store  boasted  with 
reason  of  "young  Put's"  conquest  of  a  ferocious  bull  by 
a  twist  of  the  tail  and  a  dig  of  his  spurs  in  the  south  ' '  med- 
der."  Gallant  soldier  boys  came  "marching  home  again:" 
General  Gideon  Foster,  General  Moses  Porter,  Colonel 
Enoch,  and  Captain  Jeremiah  Putnam,  and  Jeremiah  Page, 
commander  of  the  Danvers  militia.  It  was  Captain  Page's 
wilful  wife  (the  joy  of  his  life)  who  gave  a  rebellious  tea- 
party  on  yonder  railed-in  gambrel  roof;  her  patriot 
husband,  departing,  said: 

"  I  have  promised  no  one  shall  drink  tea  inside  my  house, 
Your  gossips  elsewhere  must  carouse."  I 

His  hoof-beats  had  scarcely  grown  faint  ere  his  obedient 
lady  invited  her  friends  to  sip  the  forbidden  cup  upon  the 
house-top,  but  not  within  it.  From  this  roof  General  Gage 
was  wont  to  watch  the  ships  up  Salem  harbor.  Though 
he  was  "affable  and  courteous, "  and  the  English  soldiery 
well-mannered,  Danvers  folk  could  not  be  exactly  cordial 
to  their  uninvited  guests,  the  64th  Regiment,  royal  troops, 
encamped  in  front  of  Gage's  headquarters,  "  King  ': 
Hooper's  charming  country  house.2 

PEABODY 

On  a  certain  sultry  seventeenth  of  June,  when  the  season 
was  so  far  advanced  that  green  peas  were  plenty  and  grass 
new-mown  was  pressed  between  two  fences  for  a  breast- 
says:  "This  very  plain-looking  dwelling  has  been  the  cradle  of  a  man  of 
the  people,  who  raised  himself  to  a  high  station  by  the  sheer  force  of  his 
own  natural  powers." 

1  A  Gambrel  Roof,  by  Lucy  Larcom. 

2  See  illustration,  page  15 ;  one  of  our  finest  specimens  of  colonial  archi- 
tecture.    A  large  oak-tree  near  the  encampment  was  afterwards  known 
as  "King  George's  whipping-post."     This  tree,  where  the  soldiers  were 
punished,  became  the  stern-post  of  the  frigate  Essex,  built  in  Salem. 


Peabody  169 

work  at  Bunker  Hill,  a  regiment,  on  their  way  to  the  field, 
stopped  at  the  Bell  Tavern,  at  the  present  Lexington  Monu- 
ment, in  the  parish  of  South  Danvers  (Peabody),  for  re- 
freshment.1 From  the  ranks,  Elias  Hasket  Derby,  the 
Salem  merchant,  stepped  in  to  see  Mrs.  Bethiah  Southwick, 
opposite  the  inn.  As  a  quakeress,  Mrs.  Southwick  could  not 
consistently  aid  the  soldiers,  yet,  so  deeply  did  she  sympa- 
thize with  the  patriots,  that  she  brought  out  a  large  basket 
of  provisions  to  Mr.  Derby,  saying :  ' '  We  cannot  assist 
thee  and  thy  fellow-soldiers,  but  as  there  is  a  long  and 
painful  march  before  thee,  and  as  it  is  not  right  ye  should 
suffer,  here  is  a  little  food  !  " 

Peabody,  the  ancient  "  Brooksby,"  was  the  birthplace  of 
George  Peabody,  the  philanthropist  and  banker,  of  London. 
Even  Dr.  Holmes  found  himself  "Dead  broke  of  laudatory 
phrases,"  and  "Worcester  and  Webster  up  the  spout"  in 
sounding  the  praises  of  "  The  friend  of  all  his  race,  God  bless 
him!"  In  the  Peabody  Institute  is  the  portrait  of  Queen 
Victoria,  presented  by  her  to  Mr.  Peabody,  also  the  medal 
presented  him  by  Congress  on  account  of  his  gift  of  nearly 
two  million  dollars  for  the  advancement  of  education  in  the 
South.  Here  is  also  the  Sutton  Reference  Library,  in  mem- 
ory of  Eben  Dale  Sutton 

1  Mrs.  Anna  Endicott,  displeased  at  the  delay,  walked  up  to  Colonel 
Pickering  and,  with  the  voice  of  an  Amazon,  said:  "  Why  on  earth  don't 
you  march?  Don't  you  hear  the  guns  in  Charlestown ? " — History  of 
Danvers,  by  J.  W.  Hanson. 


BEVERLY,  1628-1668 

"Find  the  Yankee  word  for  Sorrento  and  you  have  Beverly, — it  is  only 
the  Bay  of  Naples  translated  into  the  New  England  dialect." — "  Letters  "  of 
JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

THE  highway  to  Beverly  is  over  the  famous  Essex  bridge. 
On  the  Salem  side  Winthrop  is  said  to  have  landed  near 
"Prof.  Hitchcock's  dike  rock."  Washington  alighted  from 
his  carriage  to  admire  this  remarkable  structure,  and  jour- 
neyed on  to  be  entertained  by  George  Cabot,  one  of  three 
distinguished  brothers,  and  to  visit,  at  North  Beverly,  the 
first  cotton-factory  in  the  States. 

In  the  earliest  records  of  Beverly,  Richard  Brackenbury 
says :  "  We  took  farther  possession  on  the  north  side  of  Salem 
ferrye,  commonly  called  Cape  An  Side  by  cutting  thach  for 
our  houses"  (1628).  The  General  Court  granted  two  hun- 
dred acres  of  land  at  Bass  River  to  John  Woodbury,  Conant, 
John  Balch,  and  Peter  Palfrey,  and  changed  its  name  to 
Beverly1  ;  but  the  name  was  not  one  of  sweet  sounds  to 
Roger  Conant  and  his  neighbors,  and  they  besought  to  be 
denominated  Budleigh,  for  their  market-town  in  Devon- 
shire, lest  they  be  subjected  to  the  nickname  of  beggarly. 

During  the  early  wars  the  trails  on  Beverly's  eastern 
border  became  wide-trodden  wood-paths,  leading  to  garri- 
son houses  or  rude  protecting  earth-works  on  the  shore. 
Brackenbury  Lane  was  the  earliest  of  these  and  't  was  from 
charming  Beverly  Cove  that  Captain  Lothrop  led  the  flower 

1  The  first  witness  of  the  parchment  deed  signed  before  Benjamin 
Gedney  by  the  heirs  of  Nanepashemet,  in  figures  of  samp  bowls,  tobacco 
pipes,  fish  hooks,  and  other  symbols,  was  Beverly's  town  clerk,  Andrew 
Eliot,  ancestor  of  President  Eliot  of  Harvard,  J.  Eliot  Cabot,  John  Eliot 
Thayer. 

170 


Beverly 


171 


of  Essex,  in  1695,  to  perish  at  Bloody  Brook,  Deerfield. 
Beautiful  Hale  Street  coquettes  with  the  sea  for  seven  miles 
along  the  Riviera  of  Massachusetts, 
now  approaching  salt  water,  again 

,r  -1-1         1         •          •  LANDMARKS:     Cabot    Street— Es- 

wmdmg  half  a  mile  inland,  piercing  !sex  Bridge>  Ferry  Estab.  l630.  109> 
groups    of   balmy   pines,    fringing  I  Seth  Norwood  house,  buiit  by  George 


BEVERLY 


of 
finished  estates. 


You  will  remem- 


ber the  playful  comment  of  Dr. 
Holmes  on  Beverly's  next-door 
neighbor,  Manchester-by-the-Sea, 
as  he  dated  his  letters  at  "  Beverly- 
Farms-by-the-Depot,"  and  also  the 
pet  tape-measure  of  the  patriotic 
doctor,  with  which  he  spanned  each 
superb  elm  of  large  trunk  and  high 
degree.  How  he  rejoiced  on  his 
visits  to  other  lands,  when  the 
girth  of  his  own  dear  trees  of  Essex 
County  were  found  to  surpass  all 
foreign  rivals  ! 

The  most  picturesque  wooded 
ways  imaginable  are  those  thread- 
ing Beverly,  Wenham,  and  Hamil- 
ton —  anciently,  Bass  -  River  -  Side, 
Enon,  and  Ipswich  Hamlet.  Every 
hillside  has  its  fastidious  residence 
in  this  Utopian  country  ;  ever  and 
anon  an  enchanting  quaint  gray  homestead,  set  on  a  "rise" 
above  the  road,  is  brightened  by  deep  crimson  hollyhocks 
reaching  up  protectingly  toward  a  face  at  the  window,  where, 
perchance,  long  time  ago,  sat  some  lonely  Hannah,  binding 
shoes,  watching  for  her  sunburnt  fisher  to  return  by  Marble- 
head,  through  twelve  times  twenty  months  of  galloping 


'Cabot,  1783;  Washington  enter- 
tained here.  117,  Mansion  of  John 
Cabot,  1779;  now  Historical  Society 
Building,  bequeathed  by  Edward 
Burley;  Lafayette  welcomed  here, 
1824,  by  Robert  Rantoul  for  the 
town.  156,  birthplace  of  Rev. 
Andrew  P.  Peabody.  191,  City  Hall 
Building,  Andrew  Cabot  mansion 
1783.  (Near  Cabot  St.)  birthplace 
of  Lucy  Larcom,  13  Wallis  St.  217, 
First  Parish  Church,  1770,  "  with 
Revere  Bell  and  ancient  Clock "; 
organized,  1667.  238,  residence  of 
hon.  Nathan  Dane.  463,  home  of 
Roger  Conant.  634,  house  of  Rev. 
John  Chipman  (first  minister  of 
North  Beverly,  1715).  Hale  St.— 33, 
parsonage  of  Rev.  John  Hale,  1690; 
his  wife  last  person  accused  of  witch- 
craft. Historic  Elm.  Hospital 
Point  Light.  Chapman  Corner. 
Mingo's  Beach,  named  for  Robin 
Mingo,  a  slave.  Pride's  Crossing, 
granted  to  Peter  Pride  '•  provided  he 
showed  travelers  to  Gloucester  the 
way  over  the  hill."  Dr.  O.  W. 
Holmes's  residence.  Beverly  Farms, 
— West  Beach.  Church  and  Old 
Burying  Ground  at  North  Beverly. 
Beverly  Reservoir,  Brimble  Hill. 
Wenham  Lake,  Enon  St.  For  a 
more  complete  list  see  "  Beverly  Citi- 
zen Guide  Book." 


i?2  Old.  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

winds,  sunshine,  or  impenetrable  fog-banks.  Lucy  Lar- 
com's  sweetest,  most  pathetic  poems  were  inspired  by  her 
native  Cape- Ann-Side. 

The  home  of  Colonel  Robert  Dodge,  commander  of  the 
"  Ipswich  Hamlet  "  company  at  Bunker  Hill,  is  the  Myopia 


The  Turn  at  the  Willows  to  Hospital  Point  Light,  Beverly. 

Hunt  Club-house.  The  pink  coats  of  the  chase  against 
yellowing  corn-fields  warm  the  chill  autumn  landscape. 
Among  Hamilton's  landmarks  is  the  church  of  the  First 
Congregational  Society,  erected  in  1762,  the  Adams  home- 
stead, aged  about  two  hundred  years,  and  the  Lemuel  Brown 
homestead.  The  residence  of  Judge  Daniel  E.  Safford 
stands  on  the  site  of  the  Dr.  Elisha  Whitney-Roberts  house J ; 
the  house  of  Samuel  Wigglesworth,  son  of  Michael  Wiggles- 

1  Now  the  property  of  Mrs.  Francis  Dane. 


Hamilton  173 

worth,  the  poet,  was  the  parsonage  of  Dr.  Manasseh  Cutler x 
during  his  long  pastorate  of  Ipswich  Hamlet,  now  Hamil- 
ton, beginning  in  1771.  In  1787,  inspired  by  Dr.  Cutler, 
a  little  band  of  settlers  left  this  fine  old  house  to  lay  the 
foundations  of  Marietta,  Ohio,  under  the  leadership  of  Gen- 


A  Pine- Path  to  the  Sea. 

eral  Rufus  Putnam,  whom  they  joined  at  Rutland,  Mass., 
often  called  the  "cradle  of  Ohio."  Eighteen  months  later 
Dr.  Cutler,  wishing  to  see  with  his  own  eyes  the  swift  be- 
ginnings of  the  great  Northwest  Territory,  followed  them  in 
his  sulky,  a  month's  journey,  but  shortly  returned ;  his  son, 

1  Illustrations  of  the  church,  parsonage,  and  Dr.  Cutler's  clock  are 
included  in  the  article  on  Manasseh  Cutler  and  the  Ordinance  of  1787,  by 
Nathan  N.  Withington,  in  the  New  England  Magazine,  July,  1901. 


i;4  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

Judge  Cutler,  became  a  leader  in  Ohio.  Dr.  Cutler's  great- 
est achievement  was  as  instigator  of  the  Ohio  Company, 
with  General  Putnam,  formed  at  the  Bunch  of  Grapes 
Tavern,  Boston,  March  i,  1786;  it  not  only  comprehended 
the  eventual  building  up  of  the  great  Northwest,  and  the 
just  compensation  of  our  soldiers  of  the  Revolution  by  grants 
of  land  therein,  but  the  peopling  of  the  States  with  worthy 
citizens;  at  the  same  time  the  powerful  ordinance  was 
passed,  by  virtue  of  which  slavery  was  excluded  from  the 
Northwest  Territory,  having  been  previously  drafted  for 
Nathan  Dane  by  Dr.  Cutler,  making  free  education  a  cer- 
tainty. The  importance  to  the  entire  country  of  this  tact- 
ful wedge,  driven  in  by  these  far-sighted  men  of  the  villages 
of  Rutland  and  Ipswich  Hamlet,  was  incisively  set  before 
us  by  Senator  George  F.  Hoar  at  the  centennial  celebration 
of  Marietta.  Dr.  Cutler,  like  other  colonial  ministers, 
practised  medicine,  the  town's  physician  having  volunteered 
in  the  war.  He  was  probably  the  first  to  describe  the 
flora  of  New  England,  and,  with  a  party  of  seven,  including 
Dr.  Jeremy  Belknap,  ascended  Mt.  Washington,  being  the 
first  white  to  attain  the  summit. 

Riding  through  North  Beverly,  by  clear  Wenham  Lake, 
into  old  Wenham,  you  will  encounter  one  of  the  prettiest, 
quaintest  streets  in  all  New  England,  and  mark  the  little 
shoe-shop  attached  to  each  delightful  old-fashioned  farm- 
house for  family  cobbling  and  the  finishing  of  shoes  before 
great  shops  were  established. 


GLOUCESTER,  1639-1873 

"7  ploughed  the  land  with  horses. 
But  my  heart  was  ill  at  ease, 
For  the  old  sea-faring  men 
Came  to  me  now  and  then, 
With  the  sagas  of  the  seas." 

FROM  Beverly  to  Gloucester  the  winding  road  through 
ancient  Cape-Ann-side  is  continually  losing  itself  in  Che- 
bacco  woods,  "among  a  hidden  chain  of  gem-like  ponds." 
The  fascination  of  riding  onward  to  Wenham  and  Man- 
chester and  Essex  through  scent  o'  pines  in  the  silent  wood 
loneliness  is  enhanced  by  the  momentary  expectation  of 
coming  out  upon  the  broad,  open  sea  with  only  white  sails 
between  you  and  the  other  side. 

Sea-fever  is  as  infectious  as  measles;  every  grown-up 
boy  of  parts  will  confess  that  he  has  had  his  day  of  running 
away  to  sea — like  Tom  Bailey,1 — when  he  surreptitiously 
tied  up  his  "kit"  in  a  bandanna  kerchief  and  slipped  the 
home  cable,  ready  to  fill  the  desirable  position  of  cabin-boy, 
and  become  a  bloomin'  Jack-tar  in  the  'eave  of  a  'and- 
spike.  The  city-bom  youth  is  more  often  turned  back  by 
the  "  Bow-bells"  of  circumstance,  but  the  Gloucester  boy  of 
forty  years  ago  may  boast  a  share  in  yonder  close-reefed 
schooner,  making  in  toward  Eastern  Point,  and  spin  for  you 
the  true  yarn  of  her  last  voyage,  when  she  dressed  a  catch  of 
ninety  thousand  fish  for  the  Boston  market. 

We  landsmen  compromise  with  this  imperative  longing 
for  the  sea — our  Norse  inheritance — by  summering  on  Cape 
Ann,  where  the  sea  blows  salt  from  three  points  of  the  com- 
) 

1  The  Story  of  a  Bad  Boy,  by  Thomas  Bailey  Aldrich. 


176  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

pass.  On  the  Cape,  the  highways  delight  in  unexpected 
twists,  following  early  dory  paths  to  sheltered  coves.  The 
spicy  bay-berry  and  "sweet  single  roses"  hug  rough,  gray 
boulders  strewn  by  the  glacier;  honeysuckle  climbs  the 
old-time  cottage,  whose  weather-stained  dory  makes  a 
picturesque  basket  for  a  brilliant  nosegay  of  clove-pinks, 
nasturtiums,  mignonette,  forget-me-not,  and  scarlet  pop- 
pies— -a  bit  of  compensation  for  the  lonely  fishermen's  wife 
when  the  fleet  is  out  on  Georges. 

One  may  not  picture  Gloucester  minus  wharves  lined 
with  staunch  fishing-vessels ;  the  awkward  pink  pointed  at 
both  ends  and  without  a  bowsprit  is  almost  forgotten  since 
Captain  Andrew  Robinson  invented  the  schooner,  in  1713. 
"Oh!  how  she  scoons!"  a  sailor  cried,  as  she  slipped  down 
the  ways,  and  "schooner"  she  remains.  "Gloucester 
schooners  are  the  best  heavy  weather  small  craft  afloat. 
They  can  sail  like  cup  defenders  and  walk  into  the  wind 
like  steamers."  l  It  is  not  a  marvellous  sight  to  see  a  fleet 
of  two  hundred  sail  beat  out  of  Gloucester  harbor,  leaving 
behind  the  white-crested  reef  of  Norman's  Woe  and  the 
soft  green  hills  of  Magnolia.  The  summer  visitor  watches 
with  pleasure  the  drying  of  the  fish  on  the  flakes,  the  shred- 
ing  by  machinery,  until  the  cod,  manipulated  in  proper 
sequence,  is  ready  to  appear  on  the  Sunday  morning  break- 
fast table  of  all  good  New  Englanders. 

The  one  who  is  sympathique  looks  far  beyond  that  smiling, 
summer  sea,  over  which  bird-like  yachts  are  playfully 
careening  under  wide,  racing  sails  in  answer  to  the  lightest 
touch  of  old  Boreas.  From  harbor  to  harbor  they  flit  in 
careless  sauntering,  cruising  after  health  lost  in  the  un- 
nerving strain  of  their  commander's  portion  of  labor  in 

1  "A  Dash  to  the  Banks  and  Back,"  James  B.  Connolly,  Boston  Trans- 
script,  March  30,  1901. 


1 78  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

State  or  Wall  Street,  a  no  less  strenuous  task  than  voyaging 
for  "fisherman's  luck "  on  Georges.  When  the  sturdy  boats 
sail  away  from  Gloucester  it  means  bread  and  butter  for 
the  pretty  cottage  where,  on  long  wintry  nights,  the  expect- 


"By  the  Sea" — Cape  Ann. 

' '  The  gentleness  of  Heaven  is  on  the  sea; 
Listen,  the  mighty  being  is  awake, 
And  doth  with  his  eternal  motion  make 
A  sound  like  thunder  —  everlastingly." — WORDSWORTH. 

ant  light  shines  at  the  window.  Pray  the  flag  may  not 
float  at  half-mast  for  her !  When  they  go  down  on  Georges, 
it  is  with  all  on  board.  The  treacherous  shoals  are  as  A  B  C 
to  the  Captains  Courageous,  at  every  turn  of  the  tide.  But 
when  the  fog  comes  on  thick,  and  the  rigging  becomes 


Cape  Ann  and  Early  "  Voyageurs  "       179 

shrouded  with  ice,  and  the  whistling  gale  brings  blinding 
snow,  then  comes  the  horror !  If  the  cable  parts,  the  vessel 
may  helplessly  glide  down  afoul  of  her  comrades  and  wreck 
several  of  the  fleet.  Yet  where  is  the  sailor  who  would 
exchange  his  trawls  for  a  plough? 

"So  when  you  see  a  Gloucester [Brixham]  boat 

Go  out  to  face  the  gales, 
Think  of  the  love  that  travels 
Like  light  upon  her  sails." 

In  Merry  England,  Cape  Ann  was  an  exciting  topic  of 
speculation!  The  western  voyageurs,  whether  in  search  of 
gold,  pearls,  and  whales,  or  a  settlement  for  conscience' 
sake,  sent  home  news  of  the  abundance  of  fish  "almost  be- 
yond believing"  and  "of  the  fine  and  sweet  harbor"  of 
Cape  Ann, — "  where  twenty  ships  may  easily  ride  therein." 
Gloucester  Harbor  is  indeed  well  protected,  except  from  a 
sou'wester,  and  four  hundred  ships  can  anchor  in  the  outer 
and  two  hundred  in  the  inner  harbor.  Francis  Higginson 
says,  in  his  narrative  of  the  New  England  Plantation,  that  in 
his  opinion  it  is  "a  nice  course  for  all  cold  complexions  to 
come  to  take  physic  in  New  England;  for  a  sup  of  New 
England's  air  is  better  than  a  whole  draught  of  Old  Eng- 
land's ale."  I  like  to  remember  how  the  Puritan  Higgin- 
son— the  ancestor  of  our  Thomas  Wentworth  Higginson — 
stooped  even  from  his  serious  height  to  the  fragrance  of 
the  wild  roses  of  Cape  Ann.  Lucy  Larcom  wrote: 

"A  rose  is  sweet,  no  matter  where  it  grows: 

But  our  wild  roses,  flavored  by  the  sea, 
And  colored  by  the  salt  winds  and  much  sun 
To  healthiest  intensity  of  bloom — 
We  think  the  world  has  none  more  beautiful." 


i8o  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

In  1614,  Captain  John  Smith  fell  in  love  with  the  sea-girt, 
wild  tumble  of  rocks,  and  named  it  Cape  Tragabizanda,  for 
the  beautiful  princess  who  helped  him  escape  from  a  Mo- 
hammedan prison,  and  he  called  these  isles  off  shore  the 
Three  Turks'  Heads  (Milk,  Straitsmouth,  and  Thacher's 
of  the  twin  lights).  Smith  urged  the  English  to  set  up  a 
fisheries  plantation.  Veritably,  he  was  an  enthusiastic 
angler  himself.  He  says :  "Is  -it  not  pretty  sport  to  pull  up 
two  pence,  six  pence,  or  twelve  pence  as  fast  as  you  can  hale 
and  veare  a  line?  And  what  sport  doth  yeeld  a  more  pleasing 
content  than  angling  with  a  hooke  and  crossing  the  sweete 
ay  re  from  lie  to  lie,  over  the  silent  streames  of  a  Calme  Sea?" 

The  Plymouth  colonists  who  set  up  a  fishing-stage  at  Cape 
Ann,  in  1624,  found  it  usurped  by  one  Hewes,  who  entered 
into  dispute  behind  a  barricade  of  hogsheads  with  the 
doughty  Miles  Standish.  A  peacemaker  appeared  in  the 
person  of  Roger  Conant,  who  persuaded  the  Plymouth  com- 
pany to  follow  him  to  Salem.  In  1642,  a  permanent  settle- 
ment was  made  by  Pastor  Blynman  on  Gloucester  Neck, 
between  Annisquam  and  Mill  rivers.  They  cultivated  the 
soil  without  a  suspicion  of  the  riches  of  the  sea  at  their 
doors,  through  which  Gloucester  was  to  become  the  greatest 
fishing-port  of  the  world.1 

Strange  tales  are  told:  of  spectral  leaguers  marching 
around  the  blockhouses  of  Cape  Ann ;  of  Peg  Wosson,  the 
witch,  who  threatened  the  troops  setting  out  for  Cape 

1  A  report  of  the  U.  S.  Commissioner  of  Fish  and  Fisheries  shows 
112,049,572  pounds  of  fish  landed  at  Gloucester  for  one  year,  valued 
at  $2,765,306.  This  includes  cod,  from  the  Banks  of  Newfoundland  and 
Block  Island,  and  line-fishing  off  shore;  also  haddock,  hake,  pollock, 
and  mackerel.  The  Commission  has  a  hatchway  at  Gloucester  for  cod  and 
lobsters.  Lobsters  are  scarcer  than  ever  before  known.  Collections  of 
eggs  are  made  between  November  and  March,  the  fry  is  hatched  and 
planted  along  the  coast  from  Rockport  to  Beverly.  Three  million  have 
been  deposited  in  Chesapeake  Bay,  as  an  experiment. 


Gloucester  Phantoms  and  War  181 

Breton,  appearing  to  them  in  the  guise  of  a  raven  before 
Louisbourg.  A  soldier  brought  down  the  bird  of  ill-omen 
with  bullets  of  silver  buttons  (lead  would  not  hurt  a  witch). 
At  that  very  moment,  in  Gloucester  town,  Peg  Wesson 
broke  her  leg  and  these  silver  buttons  were  abstracted 
from  the  fracture!  Peg  Wesson's  grass-grown  cellar  is  in 
the  deserted  village  of  Dogtown.  Wandering  between  acres 
of  misleading  rocks  in  this  forlorn  moorland,  it  is  easy  to 
conjure  up  a  spectre  colony  of  widows  and  their  dogs. 

The  over-hanging  story  of  the  Ellery  house  and  its  bullet 
holes  tell  the  tale  of  garrison  days.  It  has  been  in  the 
famous  Ellery  family  nigh  two  hundred  years.  William 
Ellery,  one  of  the  original  settlers  of  Gloucester,  was  the 
great-grandfather  of  William  Ellery,  "the  Signer,"  of  New- 
port. War-times  were  thrilling !  Four  companies  marched 
to  Lexington  and  two  to  Bunker  Hill.  Armed  cruisers 
hovered  about  the  harbor,  and  such  a  reputation  did  Glou- 
cester men  hold  that  Hull  summoned  them  to  man  the 
Constitution.  Fishing- vessels  became  privateers  by  "  length- 
ening the  hatchways  and  slipping  four  swivels  in  the  comb- 
ings." These  privateers  knew  a  trick  or  two;  they  would 
steal  away  through  little  Squam  River  from  Gloucester 
Harbor  into  Ipswich  Bay,  and  the  discomfited  stranger-ship 
had  to  give  up  the  chase. 

The  ship-of-war  Falcon  cruised  about  Squam,  impress- 
ing men,  and  making  raids  on  land  and  sea.  Captain 
Linzee  l  seized  a  prize  with  a  cargo  of  sand  from  Coffin's 
Beach,  instead  of  provisions.  Forthwith  he  coveted  Major 
Coffin's  sheep,  but  the  farm-hands  kept  up  such  a  rattling 

1  The  swords  of  Captain  John  Linzee,  R.  N.,  and  Colonel  William 
Prescott,  worn  at  Bunker  Hill,  were  bequeathed  to  the  Massachusetts 
Historical  Society  by  William  H.  Prescott.  They  hang  crossed,  as  in 
the  library  of  the  late  eminent  historian,  Prescott — "in  token  of  national 
friendship  and  family  alliance." 


1 82  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

fire  from  behind  the  sand-dunes  that  the  British  retreated 
before  a  supposed  regiment.  Altogether,  Gloucester  made 
it  ' '  hot ' '  for  the  Falcon,  recapturing  their  schooners,  and 
when  Linzee  attempted  to  fire  the  town  no  lives  were  lost 
except  that  of  Deacon  Kinsman's  hog. 

It  is  whispered  that  long  ago,  smugglers  found  the  thick 
woods  between  Bay  View  and  Rockport  a  safe  hiding-place 


The  Old  Custom  House,  Annisquam. 

for  plunder.  On  a  grass-grown  wood-path  a  gloomy  smug- 
gler's house,  with  a  secret  closet,  may  be  seen,  easily  ap- 
proached by  the  pursued  from  the  water  on  either  side, 
thus  eluding  capture. 

You  will  like  to  travel  all  around  the  Cape,  where  summer 
cottages  are  notched  in  between  the  cosy  hearthstones  of 
old  Gloucester,  Annisquam,  and  Pigeon  Cove.  Leave  the 
car  at  East  Gloucester,  whose  wharves  are  a  picturesque 
tangle  of  sea  tools;  of  seines  drying  and  smaller  nets — the 
bag,  dip,  gill,  snap,  trap  nets  and  weirs.  Beyond  Rocky 
Neck  Avenue,  a  sandy  beach  curves  toward  Eastern  Point 


J 


1 84  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

Light,  where  the  surf  is  pounding  in  contrast  to  Niles  pond 
of  tranquil  water-lilies;  the  cottage  of  Mrs.  Elizabeth 
Stuart  Phelps  Ward  stood  hard  by.  From  Bass  Rocks,  Long 
Beach  stretches  toward  Turk's  Head  Inn  at  Land's  End. 
The  nearest  way  is  by  a  Rockport  car  from  Gloucester 
centre:  turn  to  the  right  at  the  foot  of  the  hill,  walking 
by  orchards  fringed  with  blue  sea,  past  Loblolly  Cove  to 
the  Atlantic  Cable. 

Rockport  has  a  rare  terminal  moraine ;  the  geologist  finds 
here  perfect  examples  of  strata  of  all  periods,  as  the  quarries 
let  him  down  into  the  bowels  of  the  earth.  On  the  pocket 
beaches  he  traces  the  action  of  the  waves  upon  rocks.1 

In  the  quarries  the  Italian  workman  is  most  apt  in  fine 
carving,  true  to  the  art  traditions  of  his  race.  Their  little 
colony  clings  to  home  customs  and  games ;  you  may  catch 
snatches  of  Neapolitan  airs.  Connoisseurs  in  folk-lore  have 
visited  the  Italians  of  Rockport  and  translated  their  songs. 
The  Finnish  village  has  its  own  church,  physician,  and 
teachers.  The  American  minister  found  a  surprising  talent 
for  mathematics  in  this  class  of  Finn  boys,  who,  in  appear- 
ance, were  somewhat  stupid  from  lack  of  language.  These 
bristling  quarries  supplied  the  granite  for  Saint  Ann's;  her 
cross  is  the  mariner's  beacon.  Cape  Ann  has  many  churches 
and  the  Mission  of  Emanuel  Charlton  (of  remarkable  history) 
designed  especially  for  strangers  and  foreigners  who  make 
port  at  Gloucester. 

Across  the  bay  from  Pigeon  Cove  are  the  glistening  sands 
of  Plum  Island.  Passing  Folly  Cove  and  Halibut  Point  it 
is  a  short  mile  walk  to  a  Gloucester  car.  You  will  linger 
over  your  good-by  to  the  old  locust  trees  of  Lanesville  and 
the  sunset  view  up  the  coast  from  Ispwich,  along  Salisbury 
Beach,  the  Great  Boar's  Head  and  Rye  Beach  to  Ports- 

1  Prof.  N.  S.  Shaler  on  "  Geology  of  Cape  Ann." 


Rockport  185 

mouth  Light,  and  above  all  to  yonder  curious  blue  appari- 
tion, a  mountain  standing  alone  on  the  sea,  the  round 
Agamenticus. 

You  may,  perchance,  see  the  cup-winner  America  stand- 
ing out  from  Ipswich  Bay,  as  in  past  years  when  General 
Butler  occupied  his  country-seat  at  Bay  View.  Lobster 
Cove  and  the  old  Universalist  Church  of  Annisquam  are  a 
most  attractive  picture  by  moonlight. 


NORTH  ANDOVER,  1646-1855 

NORTH  ANDOVER,  as  the  most  advanced  in  years,  though 
by  no  means  decrepit,  of  the  Merrimack  Valley  trio,  Andover, 
North  Andover,  and  Methuen,  demands  our  first  considera- 
tion; its  very  stones  have  a  strictly  colonial  air,  while  the 
stately  mansions  of  this  North  Parish  of  Andover  promise  a 
marvellous  store  of  history  and  tradition. 

Just  beyond  the  village  is  Lake  Cochichawick,  Andover's 
Indian  name  before  it  was  sold  by  the  unwary  Cutsamache 
for  a  "Coat  and  six  pounds  sterling,  provided  y*  y'  Indian 
called  Roger  may  have  liberty  to  take  alewives  in  Cochichawick 
River,  but  if  they  either  spoyle  or  steale  any  corne  or  other 
fruite  to  any  considerable  value  of  ye  inhabitants  then  this 
liberty  of  taking  fish  shall  forever  cease."  i  On  the  way 
thither,  amid  the  green  nestles  a  homestead  of  the  Osgood  2 
family,  influential  in  civil  and  military  affairs  from  the 
first  settlement.  The  hill  beyond  displays  the  modern 
mansion  of  the  Hon.  Moses  T.  Stevens,  and  other  beautiful 
residences  occupying  the  homestead  grants  of  first  settlers. 

The  house  of  General  Eben  Sutton  stands  nigh  to  the 
ancient  "house  lot,  kort-yard  and  dwelling  house"  of 
Richard  Sutton,  with  its  "  forty  and  eight  acres  of  upland 
lying  on  the  farr  side  of  Shawshin  river,"  sold  to  him  by 
Mr.  Simon  Bradstreet  and  Ann,  his  wife.  Hard  by  were  the 
log  huts  of  George  Abbot  senr.  on  the  north  and  George  Abbot 
jr.  on  the  south,  also  of  Mr.  Bradstreet,  who  took  up  his  last 

1  The  early  township  of   Andover  included  land  lying  between  the 
Merrimack  River,  Rowley,  Salem,  Woburn,  and  Cambridge. 

2  Samuel  Osgood  was  a  member  of  the  Provincial  Congress  and  Post- 
master-General.    Dr.  Joseph  Osgood  and  Dr.  George  Osgood  were  emi- 
nent physicians. 

186 


North  Andover 


187 


NORTH  ANDOVER 


sitting  at  Andover,  a  place  well  fitted  for  the  husbandman's 
hand  but  of  great  inconvenience  to  the  planters  in  carrying 
their  corn  to  market.1 

You  will  find  the  second  and 
more  commodious  house  of  the 
worshipful  Simon  Bradstreet  on 
the  highway  to  the  Old  North 
Church,  the  home  of  our  first  wo- 
man poet,  Anne  Bradstreet.2  The 
house,  with  buttressed  chimney 
like  a  fortress  to  the  roof,  is  most 
attractive  in  its  present-day  quaint- 
ness;  to  every  rafter  hangs  a  tale 
and  a  certain  chamber  confesses  a 
ghost.  When  the  Indians  fell  on 
Andover  to  take  revenge  on  ' '  Pem- 
aquid  Chubb,"3  forty  savages,  led 
by  the  implacable  Assacumbuit, 
dragged  Colonel  Bradstreet  and  his 
family  over  the  snowy  road  by  the 
light  of  burning  farms,  then,  as 


LANDMARKS:  Public  Library  in 
Odd  Fellows'  Building.  The  First 
Church,  Phillips  Sq. ;  organized  1645. 
Kittredge  mansion  (1784).  Home 
of  Dr.  Thomas  Kittredge  of  Revolu- 
tionary fame.  "  Old  North  Burying- 
Ground,"  Phillips  Manse  (1752), 
Osgood  St.  Bradstreet  house  ( 1 667) . 
Samuel  Osgood  house  First  Post- 
master-General. Timothy  Johnson 
Homestead  (169-),  Stevens  St.;  here 
Penelope  Johnson  was  killed  by  the 
Indians;  residence,  Miss  Kate  John- 
son. John  Osgood  house;  home  of 
Colonel  Osgood  of  the  French  and 
Indian  War.  Osgood  mansion, 
home  of  Hon.  Gayton  P.  Osgood; 
(owned  by  Mrs.  J.  H.  Davis).  Man- 
sion house  of  Mr.  Moody  Bridges  of 
the  First  Provincial  Congress ;  birth- 
place of  Major-General  Isaac  Stevens, 
killed  at  Chantilly,  1862 ;  now  the 
residence  of  Oliver  Stevens,  Esq., 
corner  Essex  and  Depot  Sts.  Adams 
House;  home  of  Major  John 
Adams;  now  the  Charlotte  Home. 
Frye  house;  home  of  Chaplain 


1  Historical  Sketches  of  Andover,  by  Sarah  Loring  Bailey. 

2  In  the  Bradstreet  lineage  are  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes,  William  Ellery 
Channing,  Wendell  Phillips,  Richard  H.   Dana.     Later  dwellers  in  the 
homestead    were   the    Rev.    William   Symmes,   the   Hon.    John    Norris, 
associate  founder  of  the  Theological  Seminary  (many  were  the  hospitable 
"  tea-drinkings "  at  Mrs.  Norris's);  also  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Parks,  the  Rev. 
Bailey  Loring,  and  Master  Simeon  Putnam,  the  pedagogue  whose  idle 
boys,  wearing  the  dunce-cap,  seated  by  the  roadside,  quite  wore  out  the 
grass  in  doing  penance  for  their  misdemeanors. 

3  "  Pascoe  Chubb  late  Commander  of  his  Majesty's  ffort  William  Henry 
at  Pemaquid  is  released  from  jail  in  Boston  on  account  of  his  indigent 
family."     He  was  committed  for  the  cowardly  giving  up  of  the  fort  to 
the  French  and  Indians,  who  threatened  him  with  torture  on  account  of 
an  unpardonable  act  of  treachery,  he  having  supplied  with  liquor  Penob- 
scot  Indians  who  were  in  conference  with  him  about  exchange  of  prisoners, 
and  then  ordered  a  massacre. 


i88  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 


Jonathan  Frye,  Chestnut  St.,  res. 
Mrs.  Sarah  P.  Grozlier.  Abraham 
Poor  Estate  or  old  "  Priest  Abbot " 
(author  of  the  History  of  Andover) 
place  on  the  Shawshine.  Mills 
(Prospect)  Hill.  St.  Paul's  Church. 
Peabody  house,  now  owned  by 
Nathaniel  Gage.  Russell  Farm. 
Lake  Cochichawick.  Foster  home- 
stead on  J.  M.  Hubbard  Estate; 
birthplace  Hon.  Jedediah  Foster. 
Hubbard  Elm,  near  Boxford  line; 
oldest  tree  in  Essex  County,  270 
years.  Ancient  Fishery  on  bank  of 
the  Merrimack,  near  mouth  of 
Shawshine  River. 


suddenly  released  them  at  the  plea 
of  an  Indian, — who,  when  a  hunted 
boy,  was  fed  and  sheltered  by 
Colonel  Bradstreet's  mother, — then 
returned  with  escort  to  Saco.  A 
similar  act  of  gratitude  was  the 
bringing  home  of  the  half -starved 
captive  boy  Timothy  Abbot  by  a 
poor,  affectionate  squaw,  who  took 
pity  on  his  mother. 


The  Governor  Bradstreet  House,  North  Andover. 
Home   of   Mistress   Anne   Bradstreet.     "  The   tenth   muse   sprung   up   in 

Amenca." 
"I  am  obnoxious  to  each  carping  tongue 

Who  says  my  hand  a  needle  better  fits, 
A  poet's  pen  all  scorn  I  should  thus  wrong, 
For  such  despite  they  cast  on  female  wits." 


North  Andover 


189 


Across  the  road  is  the  old  Phillips  Manse,1  the  ancestral 
home  of  Phillips  Brooks.  There  is  his  beloved  corn-barn, 
tinder  whose  shadow  he  longed  "to  sit  and  talk  it  all  over," 
his  European  letter  tells  us. 


The  Kittredge  Homestead  (1784),  North  Andover. 
Residence  of  Miss  Sarah  Kittredge. 

Lying  close  by,  with  only  a  pasture  between,  is  the  old 
burying  ground,  and  a  step  farther  is  the  Kittredge  mansion, 
the  home  of  six  generations  of  physicians  and  of  as  many 
sweet  singers.  Doubtless  some  one  of  these  was  accom- 

1  The  Phillips  homestead  was  built  by  Samuel  Phillips  about  1734. 
He  married  Elizabeth  Barnard,  daughter  of  the  Rev.  John  Barnard,  "who 
came  as  a  bride  with  a  considerable  fortune."  Their  son,  the  celebrated 
Judge  Phillips,  was  a  great-grandfather  of  Phillips  Brooks.  Mary  Ann 
Phillips,  daughter  of  the  Hon.  John  Phillips,  was  married  here  to  William 
Gray  Brooks,  in  1833.  They  set  up  housekeeping  near  their  uncle  Peter 
Chardon  Brooks,  on  High  Street,  Boston,  where  Phillips  Brooks  was 
born. — Life  and  Letters  of  Phillips  Brooks,  by  Alexander  V.  G.  Allen. 


190  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

panied  by  the  ancient  bassoon  at  the  North  Church,  and 
learned  the  "art  of  singing  and  rules  of  psalmody"  from  a 
music-book  of  old  melodies,  America,  Wells,  Oxford,  arranged 
without  staves  and  with  Sanskrit-like  notes,  lying  on  the 
Clement  piano  of  Madame  Kittredge.  A  flax  wheel  spun 
lavendered  linen  for  the  high  canopied  bed  from  flax  raised 
in  Andover,  and  a  baby's  wrought  cap  speaks  of  hours  of 
loving  toil  by  the  weary  housemother,  seated  primly  in  high- 
back  chair  close  to  the  flickering  light  in  the  quaint  candle- 
stick brought  over  by  Governor  Endicott. 

The  Indian  war-whoop  was  far  less  fearful  at  Andover's 
peaceful  firesides  than  the  witchcraft  frenzy  caught  one  sad 
day  from  Salem  Village.  Women  of  high  standing  were 
forced  into  confession  of  dark  dealings  with  the  "Black 
Man,"  afterward  retracted,  while  courageous  Martha  Carrier, 
who  unflinchingly  denied  being  a  witch-wife,  languished  in 
Salem  jail.  If  a  "seasonable  spanking"  had  been  ad- 
ministered to  those  deluded  children  of  Old  Danvers,  the 
plague  need  not  have  infected  the  aforetime  staid  com- 
munity, and  it  would  not  have  been  necessary  to  summon 
the  eminent  Cotton  Mather  to  disperse  the  witch-revel. 

The  North  Church  prospered  greatly  under  the  Rev.  John 
Barnard,  ordained  in  1719  with  elaborate  ceremonies. 
Church  records  reveal  much  public  admonishing  of  mem- 
bers in  good  standing.  "Voted,  that  Lawrence shall 

make  a  Public  confession  for  the  Idle  lazy  life  he  has  led  for 

these  many  years.  Voted  that  B make  her  confession 

for  scandals.  That  Timothy jr.  make  a  public  con- 
fession for  his  false  and  uncharitable  reflexion  upon  me 
(Mr.  Barnard)."  The  latter  offence  against  the  minister 
was  such  a  grave  matter  that  three  ministers  were  called 
in  from  neighboring  churches,  in  consultation. 

Andover,  North  and  South,  played  a  courageous  part  in 
the  wars,  early  and  late;  two  companies  under  Captain 
Thomas  Poor  and  Captain  Benjamin  Ames,  in  Colonel 


North  Andover  191 

James  Frye's  regiment,  appear  in  the  Lexington  Alarm  Rolls; 
also  companies  under  Captain  Henry  Abbot,  Captain 
Nathaniel  Lovejoy,  Lieutenant  John  Adams,  and  Captain 
Joshua  Holt.1  Many  of  these  were  at  Bunker  Hill. 

"Shot  fell  like  rain  on  Charlestown  Neck 

And  brave  the  deeds  oft  told, 
Of  Bailey,  Farnum,  Frye  and  Poor 
And  stout  John  Barker  bold."  2 

News  of  the  battle  reached  Andover  on  Sunday  morning, 
and  the  patriot  parson — Jonathan  French — stayed  not  for 
scruples  of  Sabbath  travel,  but  was  soon  on  the  field,  with 
musket  and  surgeon's  case.  Parson  French's  fair  daughter 
Abigail  became  the  beauty  and  toast  of  the  town;  and 
when  he  presented  her  with  a  side-saddle  3  she  forthwith 
proceeded  to  ride  over  the  hearts  of  all  theologians,  staid 
and  otherwise,  who  came  to  read  with  her  good  father.  The 
saddle  finally  bore  her  off  on  her  wedding  journey  to  Bed- 
ford town,  leaving  a  score  of  suitors  lamenting. 

1  In  Captain  Joshua  Holt's  Company  were  Deacon  John  Dane,  Thomas 
Blanchard,  and  other  aged  men,  unable  to  bear  arms,  who  rode  to  Cam- 
bridge on  the  day  of  the  alarm  "to  carry  provisions  for  those  who  stood 
in  need." 

2  Poem  by  Annie  Sawyer  Downs  on  the  occasion  of  the  celebration 
of  the  two  hundred  and  fiftieth  anniversary  of  Andover. 

3  Abigail  French  married  the  Rev.  Samuel  Stearns,  of  Bedford.     Her 
saddle  is  now  in  the  possession  of  the  Bedford  Historical  Society. 


ANDOVER,   1646 

"  To  be  as  good  as  our  fathers  we  must  be  better." — WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

"As  I  watched  your  sports  to-day,  and  you  called  to  one  another  across  the 
-field,  I  heard  many  of  the  names  great  in  American  history.  It  is  only 
worth  while  to  have  ancestors  who  have  served  their  country  well,  if  out  of 
the  pride  of  birth  you  win  high-minded  reasons  and  desires  to  follow  nobly 
where  they  led  so  well." — PHILLIPS  BROOKS.  From  address  to  the  boys 
of  St.  Paul's  School,  Concord  on  Founder's  Day. 

ON  the  5th  of  November,  1789,  Washington — having  left 
Haverhill,  "  where  the  inhabit? s  of  this  small  village  were  well 
disposed  to  welcome  me  by  every  demonstration  which  could 
evince  their  joy," — writes  in  his  Diary:  "About  sunrise  I  set 
out  crossing  the  Merrimack  River,  over  to  the  township  of 
Bradford  and  in  nine  miles  we  came  to  Abbott's  Tavern* 
where  we  breakfasted  and  met  with  much  attention  from  Mr. 
Phillips,2  President  of  the  Senate  of  Massachusetts,  who  ac- 
companied us  through  Bellarika  to  Lexington,  where  I  dined 

1  Deacon  Isaac  Abbot's  house  on  Elm  Street,  recently  destroyed. 

2  Judge  Phillips  was  President  of  the  Senate  fifteen  years,  also  Lieu- 
tenant-Governor   of   Massachusetts,    an    overseer   of    Harvard    College, 
promoter  of  Phillips  Academy,  and  one  of  the  original  members  of  the 
American   Academy   of  Arts   and   Sciences.     He   also   contemplated   a 
theological  professorship  which  ended  in  the  founding  of  the  Andover 
Theological  Seminary.     Madame  (Phoebe  Foxcroft)  Phillips  and  her  son 
united  with  Samuel  Abbot,  Esq.,  who  was  a  grandson  of  Samuel  Phillips, 
Esq.,  the  goldsmith  of  Salem,  he  being  a  grandson  of  the  founder  of  the 
Phillips  family — the  Rev.  George  Phillips. 

The  chief  founder  of  Abbot  Female  Seminary  (whose  plan  was  so  ably 
carried  out  by  the  Misses  Philena  and  Phebe  Me  Keen),  Mrs.  Sarah 
Abbot,  was  also  descended  from  the  goldsmith  of  Salem,  and  also  the 
•wife  of  the  founder  of  the  Browne  Professorship  of  Ecclesiastical  History, 
Moses  Brown,  Esq.,  of  Newburyport. — Memoir  of  Judge  Phillips,  by  Dr. 
J.  L.  Taylor. 

192 


Andover 


and  viewed  the  spot  on  which  the  first  blood  was  spilt  in  the 
dispute  with  Great  Britain." 


ANDOVER 

LANDMARKS:  Memorial  Hall  with 
Public  Library.  Squire  Kneeland 
house  (1700).  "  Old  South  Ministry 
House,"  home  of  Rev.  Samuel 
Phillips,  and  Rev.  Jonathan  French. 
Christ  Church.  Old  South  Church. 
Abraham  Marland  house,  founder  of 
Andover's  woollen  manufactures. 
George  Abbot  homestead  (1678). 
Deacon  Daniel  Poor  homestead 
(1673).  Benjamin  Abbot  house 
(1686).  Abbot-Baker  house  (1697). 
Indian  Ridge  (esker).  Red  Spring. 
Old  Railroad,  Abbot  St.  Abbot 
Academy  (1829).  Punchard  High 
School,  founded  by  Benjamin  Pun- 
chard.  Phillips  Academy  (1778). 
Professor  Edwards  A.  Park  house. 
Old  Brick  Academy,  designed  by 
Bulfinch  1818,  burned  1896,  restored 
after  original  design.  The  "  Classic 
Hall  "  in  which  0.  W.  Holmes  spoke 
his  Exhibition  Ode.  Theological 
Cemetery  (the  "  Sleepy  Hollow  "  of 
Andover).  Jacob  Osgood  house 
(West  Parish) ,  where  James  Otis  was 
killed  by  lightning.  Captain  Joshua 
Chandler  homestead  (West  Parish). 
Sons  :  Rev.  James  Chandler,  settled 
at  Rawley;  Rev.  Samuel  Chandler 
settled  at  York,  Me.,  and  Rev.  John 
Chandler,  Billerica ;  residence  Joshua 
Chandler.  Sunset  Rock.  Prospect 
Hill.  Hagget's  Pond.  Timothy 
Ballard  estate  (1790),  now  Ballard- 
vale. 

after."  Here  came  trustees,  professors,  missionaries,  edu- 
cators, grave  and  gay:  Dr.  Hamlin  from  Turkey,  General 
Armstrong,  Professor  Samuel  B.  Morse,  Wendell  Phillips, 
the  Hon.  Alpheus  Hardy  with  his  ward  Joseph  Hardy 
Neesima,2  also  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  Gail  Hamilton,  Mark 

1  The  Andover  Chapter  of  the  Daughters  of  the  Revolution  is  named  in 
honor  of  Phoebe  Foxcroft  Phillips,  the  wife  of  Judge  Phillips. 

2  The  story  of  Mr.  Neesima's  flight  from  Japan  at  the  risk  of  death 
and  his  return  to  found  the -University  of  Doshisha,  at  Kyoto,  the  gradual 


President  Washington  was  re- 
ceived at  the  Phillips  mansion 
on  "The  Hill"  with  ceremony. 
After  his  departure  Madame 
Phillips  I  tied  a  blue  ribbon  on 
the  claw-foot  chair  in  which  he 
sat,  and  on  Washington's  death 
substituted  a  mourning  ribbon. 
The  raising  of  this  splendid  man- 
sion, in  1782,  was  celebrated  by 
the  closing  of  schools,  a  prayer 
by  Parson  French,  and  the  drink- 
ing of  its  health  in  huge  tubs  of 
punch.  It  lived  long  and  pros- 
pered as  the  "Mansion  House," 
where  famous  men  and  women 
of  all  creeds  and  climes  assembled 
year  after  year,  in  Anniversary 
week,  under  those  glorious  elms 
planted  by  Judge  Phillips ;  many 
a  school-day  romance,  begun  in 
a  careless  sunset  stroll  under  the 
romantic  "  Elm-arch,  "  continued 
through  a  second  volume,  in 
which  they  lived  "happy  forever 


194  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

Twain,  and  Ole  Bull ;  here  Lafayette  made  a  happy  little 
speech  at  the  foot  of  the  staircase;  General  Jackson  was 
reluctantly  forgiven  by  his  gracious  hostess  for  his  frugal 
partaking  of  bread  and  milk,  when  she  had  piled  high  her 
keeping-room  with  goodies  for  his  special  delectation. 


Softly  Coursing  through  the  Andovers,  the  Shawshine  Enters  the  Merri- 
mack  River  at  Lawrence. 

However,  to  endless  bowls  of  bread  and  milk  and  hasty 
pudding,  eaten  on  Zion's  Hill  in  the  primitive  English  and 
Latin  Commons,  is  ascribed  the  success  of  many  an  impe- 
cunious but  determined  farmer's  boy.  Andover's  hospi- 
tality, especially  to  the  struggling  student,  is  proverbial, 
ever  since  the  days  of  long  ago,  when  the  "stranger's 
fire"  burned  invitingly  throughout  wintry  nights  on  the 

opening  up  of  Japan  through  the  entrance  of  Christianity,  is  the  marvellous 
tale  related  in  his  Life  and  Letters  by  Professor  Arthur  S.  Hardy.  A 
sweet  memory  of  his  adopted  mother  is  the  "  Mrs.  Alpheus  Hardy  chrysan- 
themum," sent  as  a  gift  to  her  from  Japan  by  Mr.  Neesima. 


i96  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

wide  hearth  of  the  Dr.  Peabody  homestead  for  love  of  the 
passing  wayfarer.  The  Fish  house  had  a  fireplace  in  an 
outside  chimney,  where  Indians  might  cook  their  food 
undisturbed.1 

As  you  approach  on  "  The  Hill"  the  site  of  the  carpenter's 
shop,  where  thirteen  pupils  assembled,  in  1778,  at  the  open- 
ing of  Phillips  (our  first  Academy  to  be  incorporated) ,  from 
the  campus  rings  out  the  familiar  P-h-i-l-l-i-p-s  I  'rah,  'rah, 
'rah  !  At  the  reunion  of  his  class,  in  '59,  Dr.  Holmes  con- 
tributed The  Boys,  one  verse  referring  to  Samuel  F.  Smith, 
who,  while  a  student  at  the  Theological  Seminary,  wrote 
America,  sung  first  on  Independence  Day,  1832,  at  Park 
Street  Church. 

"And  there  's  a  nice  youngster  of  excellent  pith, 
Fate  tried  to  conceal  him  by  naming  him  Smith; 
But  he  shouted  a  song  for  the  brave  and  the  free,— 
Just  read  on  his  medal,  'My  Country,  of  Thee!'  ' 

On  the  old  William  Abbot  estate  stands  the  "  President's 
House,"  occupied  at  different  periods  by  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Griffin,  Justin  Edwards,  and  Austin  Phelps.  From  the 
garden-study  of  Elizabeth  Stuart  Phelps  Ward,  one  may 
enjoy  the  winter  sunset  scene  described  in  A  Singular  Life. 

On  the  southerly  side  of  "The  Hill"  are  three  fine  old- 
fashioned  houses,  typical  of  Andover,  and  beyond  is  the 
handsome  modern  estate  of  H.  Bradford  Lewis. 

Riding  toward  Reading  over  a  grassy  table-land,  you 
must  exclaim  at  the  sight  of  this  glorious  rolling  country 
with  its  inimitable  New  England  flavor.  By  the  wayside  is 

1  Beautiful  Indian  Ridge  and  the  typical  kettle-hole,  Pomp's  Pond 
named  after  Pompey  Love  joy  (servant  of  Captain  William  Love  joy)  who 
furnished  'lection  cake  and  beer  for  town  meeting,  are  much  visited  by 
geological  students. 


Andover  197 

the  picturesque  red  farmhouse  of  three  successive  Samuel 
Cogswells.  The  Goldsmith  and  Waldo  farms  have  been 
destroyed.  In  North  Reading,  near  the  State  highway, 
is  beautiful  Martin's  Pond.  Entering  Reading,  you  see  at 
once  by  her  ancient  roofs  that  you  are  in  one  of  the  oldest 
towns  in  the  State.  The  ancestors  of  Bancroft  and  Theodore 
Parker  were  natives  of  Reading.  South  Reading  is  now 
Wakefield. 

"  To  raising  Townes  and  Churches  new  in  Wilderness  they  wander 
First  Plymouth  and  then  Salem  next  were  placed  far  asunder, 
Woburn,  Wenham,  Redding,  built  with  little  Silver  mettle 
Andover,  Haverhill,  Berris-banks  their  habitation  settle." 

Good  News  from  New  England,  by  Edward  Winslow.1 

1  Andover  is  the  birthplace  of  Octave  Thanet  (Miss  Alice  French). 
She  is  a  granddaughter  of  Governor  Marcus  Morton,  elected  governor  of 
Massachusetts  by  one  vote,  and  niece  of  Judge  Marcus  Morton  whose  old 
home  stands  at  the  corner  of  School  and  Morton  streets. 


METHUEN,  1645-1725 

A  NAME  of  distinction  has  Methuen  town,  for  it  is  the  only 
township  of  its  name  in  the  world.  Lord  Paul  Methuen, 
privy  councillor  to  the  king,  was  her  noble  namesake. 

Once  upon  a  time,  when  the  roads  of  the  lost  county  of 
old  Norfolk  (North  Folk)  were  mere  "trails"  through  the 
savage  wilderness,  Methuen  was  the  wild  border  section  on 
the  Haverhill  frontier,  and  the  quiet  surface  of  the  Merri- 
mack  was  only  rippled  now  and  then  by  a  birch  canoe;  a 
ferry  ran  across  the  Merrimack  between  the  villages  of 
Methuen  and  Andover.  These  two  defenceless  settlements 
kept  a  trained  band  of  armed  snow-shoe  men 1  provisioned 
with  parched  corn  ready  to  march  against  their  savage  foes 
when  the  cart-paths  were  blocked  with  drifts.  One  of  their 
garrisons,  built  by  Andover,  stood  opposite  the  Pemberton 
Mills,  in  Lawrence.8 

Later,  a  stage-coach  (at  seventy-five  cents  the  round  trip) 
rumbled  across  Andover  bridge  and  rounded  up  with  a 
flourish  and  cracking  of  whips  before  the  country  tavern. 
Suddenly  Lawrence  sprang  up,  in  a  night  as  it  were,  and  a 
million  bobbins  now  whirl  out  thread  from  the  misty  cot- 
ton, turned  by  the  waters  of  the  Great  Cascade,  as  the 
Indians  called  the  splendid  Falls  of  the  Merrimack  at 
Lawrence. 

Methuen  rises  in  a  series  of  terraces  from  the  low  river 

1  On  February  20,   1705,  Governor   Dudley  wrote  to  Colonel  Salton- 
stall:    "I  pray  you  to  give  direction   that  your  snow-shoe   men    from 
Newbury  to  Andover  be  ready  at  a  moment's  warning  till  the  weather 
breaks  up,  and  that  we  may  be  quiet  awhile." 

2  The  Merrimack  Valley,  by  R.  H.  Tewksbury.     Published  by  the  Meth- 
uen Historical  Society.      Ye  Catalog  of  Epitaphs  from  ye  old  burying 
ground  (1728)  on  Meeting- House  Hill. 

198 


Methuen 


199 


bed,  till  at  the  top  it  is  crowned  by  picturesque  estates  and 
handsome  memorial  buildings  and  monuments.     The  apse 
of  the  First  Church  is  beautified  by  a  La  Farge  masterpiece, 
-The  Resurrection  Morning, — a  memorial  gift  of  Mrs.  Henry 
C.  Nevins.    The  Phillips 
Chapel  was  named  for 
one  of  the  donors,  John 
C.  Phillips,  a  brother  of 
Wendell  Phillips.     The 
Nevins     Memorial    Li- 
brary contains  some  fine 
paintings,  a  portrait  of 
Henry    C.    Xevins    by 
Hubert      Herkomer,    a 
landscape  by  Verschuur, 
and    Schenck's    In   the 
Storm.     In  the  Methuen 
Historical  Society's 
Rooms  may  be  seen  the 
collection  presented  by 
Mrs.  Hayes.  The  castel- 
lated homes  in  Methuen 
add  much  to  the  land- 
scape.  As  seen  from  the 
village  the  picturesque 
Tenney  tower  resembles 
that  of  a  castle  on  the 
Rhine.     If  the  hand  of  five  hundred  years   of  mellowing 
time  had  but  stained  the  striking  turrets  and  battlements 
surrounding  the  Searles  estate,  the  onlooker  at  the  gates 
would  not  be  startled  to  hear  the  trumpet  blast  and  see 
the   drawbridge   fall   before   the   heralds   of    some   lordly 
Ivanhoe  or  Marmion,  advancing  amid  mailed  and  doughty 
knights,  a  falcon  in  the  plumage  of  his  crest,  and  gallant 


Tlie  Soldiers'  and  Sailors'  Monument,  Me- 
thuen.    Gift  of  C.  H.  Tenney. 


200  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

squires,  yeomen,  archers,  and  men-at-arms  in  train.  Oppo- 
site, in  Washington  Place,  stands  the  statue  by  Ball  of  our 
"gentil  Saxon  knight" — the  benignant  Washington.1 

1  Methuen,  situated  on  the  Massachusetts  border-line,  is  almost  within 
hailing  distance  of  several  fine  old  New  Hampshire  towns;  also  Canobie 
Lake,  one  of  the  wild  and  picturesque  inland  waters  for  which  the  State 
is  famous. 


Greycourt  from  the  Lodge. 
Residence  of  Charles  H.  Tenney,  Methuen, 


HAVERHILL,  1640-1645 

THERE  are  three  generations  of  Haverhill,  prosperous 
towns  all — one  in  old  England,  one  in  the  Bay  State,  one 
in  New  Hampshire.  The  Indian  deed  of  the  Pentuckett 
lands  was  signed  by  the  "bow  and  arrow  marks"  of  Passa- 
quo  and  Sagahew,  "with  ye  consent  of  Passaconaway,  chief 
of  the  Pennacooks."  The  master-spirit  of  Pentuckett  or 
Ward's  Plantation,  was  the  Rev.  John  Ward,  son  of  the 
witty  and  intolerant  Rev.  Nathaniel  Ward,  of  Ipswich, 
author  of  the  Simple  Cobler  of  Aggawamm.1 

Haverhill  and  Ipswich  were  neighbors  and  staunch 
friends,  and  Haverhill  often  sent  messengers  to  Ipswich  for 
aid  against  the  red  man,  who,  pushing  through  the  dense 
wilderness  from  Canada,  or  in  swift  canoe  following  the 
Merrimack,  knocked  at  their  doors  in  the  guise  of  a  trader 
and  made  the  struggling  colony  a  hunting-ground  for  scalps. 
In  the  early  spring  of  1676  the  frontier  township  of  Haver- 
hill, which  included  the  larger  part  of  Methuen,  Salem, 
Plaistow,  and  Atkinson,  was  horrified  at  the  news  that 
hostile  tribes  were  on  the  war-path  in  the  name  of  King 
Philip,  and  had  already  crossed  the  Merrimack  at  Wamesit 
(Lowell). 

They  had  six  garrisons2  and  four  houses  of  refuge, the  latter 

1  The  cobbler  stops  in  his  clever,  punning,  theological  tirade  to  make 
a  fling  at  the  "Fashions  of  Women,"  who  disfigure  themselves  with  such 
exotic  garbs  .  .  .  having  nothing  but  a  few  squirrel's  brains  to  help 
them  frisk  from  one  ill-favored  fashion  to  another.  If  he  chose  to  be  so 
hypercritical  over  the  Puritan  dress,  what  comments  would  the  ephemeral 
sleeves  of  this  age  have  called  forth ! 

*  Thomas  Whittier,  of  the  Society  of  Friends,  ancestor  of  the  poet,  lived 
near  the  Sanders  garrison;  unlike  his  fellow- townsmen,  he  never  took 
refuge  at  night  there,  or  carried  weapons.  His  family  often  heard  voices 
tmder  their  windows  or  saw  a  strange  dark  face  peeping  in,  but  Friend 
Whittier  continued  to  receive  cordially  the  Indians  who  visited  him  and 


202  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

of  brick,  each  with  a  small  door  admitting  but  one  person  at 
a  time.     The  upper  room  was  entered  by  a  ladder,  which 


Hannah  Duston  Monument,  Haverhill. 

could  be  drawn  up  in  case  of  attack.     The  Peaslee  "Garri- 
son" J  of  1690,  standing  near  Rocks  Bridge,  was  the  home  of 

had  never  reason  to  regret  his  trust  in  them.     "My  best  swarm  of  bees," 
left  Whittier  by  Henry  Rolfe,  of  Newbury,  were  the  talk  of  the  town, 
as  they  were  among  the  first  honey-bees  to  sip  Massachusetts  flowers. 
1  Other  landmarks  are  the  site  of  the  first  meeting-house,  167  Water 


The  Colonists'  Moot-Hall  203 

Whittier's  great-grandmother.  One  of  the  brick  houses  be- 
longed to  Captain  Simon  Wainwright,  another  to  the  "wor- 
shipful Major  Nathaniel  Saltonstall"  ' — son  of  Sir  Richard 
Saltonstall,  patentee  of  Connecticut.  Nathaniel  was  cap- 
tain of  the  train-band  and  became  influential  in  town-meet- 
ing about  the  time  that  a  "paper- vote"  replaced  the  black 
and  white  beans  in  the  election  of  moderator  and  selectmen 
(first  called  "seven  men,"  then  "towne's  men"  and  "town's 
men  select,"  finally  "select  men").  The  building  of  the 
schoolhouse,  a  crucial  event,  was  placed  in  charge  of  Major 
Saltonstall,  William  White,  and  Peter  Ayres.  It  was  to 
serve  also  as  a  watch-house  and  a  shelter  on  the  Sabbath, 
between  morning  and  afternoon  exercise.  The  meeting- 
house itself  must  have  been  rather  gruesome,  with  flintlocks 
stacked  in  the  corners  and  grinning  wolves'  heads,  for  which 
bounties  had  been  paid,  nailed  to  the  walls  Yet  it  is  not 
strange  that  it  was  ever  first  in  the  heart  of  the  colonist, 
standing  not  only  as  a  place  of  worship,  but  as  their  Saxon 
"moot-hall,"  the  home  of  the  freeman,  where  government 
was  through  the  "  aye  "  or  "  nay  "  or  by  the  showing  of  hands, 
just  as  each  Saxon  land-owner  and  sea-rover  used  to  vote 
by  waving  his  battle-axe  or  spear  in  answer  to  the  question 
discussed  or  "mooted"  in  the  "moot-hall"  of  his  inde- 
pendent tun  or  town. 

The  beauty  of  the  early  Saltonstall  estate,  "  Button- 
Street.  Greenwood  Cemetery;  epitaphs  published  in  the  Haverhill 
Gazette,  January  16,  1897.  Great  Hill,  view  of  the  Atlantic  from  Boar's 
Head  to  Cape  Ann.  Winnikenni  Park  and  Winnikenni  Castle,  Crystal 
Lake  and  Job's  Hill. 

1  The  Honorable  Gurdon  Saltonstall,  son  of  Major  Saltonstall,  succeeded 
Fitz-John  Winthrop  as  Governor  of  Connecticut.  Leverett,  son  of  Judge 
Richard  Saltonstall,  was  fiist  Mayor  of  Salem,  president  of  the  State 
Senate,  of  the  Essex  Agricultural  Society,  and  of  the  Essex  Bar.  Colonel 
Richard  Saltonstall  was  among  those  who  capitulated  at  Fort  William 
Henry,  during  the  French  and  Indian  War,  narrowly  escaping  massacre 
by  the  Indians  who  fell  on  the  unarmed  prisoners. 


204  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

woods,"  which  overlooks  the  river  from  Golden  Hill,  was 
remarked  by  Washington.  It  was  originally  granted  by 
the  town  to  the  Rev.  John  Ward,  who  bequeathed  both 
land  and  house  to  his  daughter  Elizabeth  and  her  husband, 
Nathaniel  Saltonstall.  In  1815  it  was  purchased  by  Major 
James  Duncan  and  has  recently  been  presented  to  the 
Haverhill  Historical  Society  by  the  Duncan  family.  These 
fine  old  sycamores,  or  buttonwoods,  were  set  out  for  Judge 
Richard  Saltonstall  in  1740  by  his  servant,  Hugh  Tallent, 
a  gay  and  popular  fiddler.  To  "Buttonwoods"  Dr.  Na- 
thaniel Saltonstall  brought  his  bride.  In  1788,  the  "Old 
Doctor,"  as  he  was  affectionately  called  in  later  years,  built 
a  substantial  mansion  on  Merrimack  Street,  the  land  being 
a  gift  from  his  father-in-law,  Squire  Samuel  White,  for 
whom  White's  Corner  was  named.  The  grandchildren  of 
the  doctor's  daughter,  "Sally"  Saltonstall,  have  preserved 
this  fine  specimen  of  colonial  architecture  by  removing  it 
from  the  business  thoroughfare  to  the  banks  of  Lake  Salton- 
stall ;  the  lake  took  its  name  from  the  house,  now  the  resi- 
dence of  Gurdon  Saltonstall  Howe.  Dr.  Saltonstall 's  "  Day 
Book,"  a  curious  and  familiar  history  of  the  time,  opens 
January  i,  1774,  thus:  "Mr.  Cornelius  Mansis,  a  visit,  8d.," 
eight  pence  being  the  physician's  fee  in  the  village  and  one 
shilling  for  a  Bradford  call.  The  poet's  grandfather,  Joseph 
Whittier,  paid  his  bill  in  full  to  the  "Old  Doctor"  by  a  jug 
of  hay,  six  pounds  of  butter,  and  a  quarter  of  veal. 

It  is  interesting  to  cull  a  paragraph  here  and  there  from 
Haverhill's  records.  The  town  ordered,  in  1652,  instead  of 
having  a  drum  beat  for  meeting,  that  "Abraham  Tyler  shall 
blow  his  horn  in  the  most  convenient  place  every  Lord's 
day,  for  which  he  is  to  have  one  peck  of  corn  of  every 
family."  .  .  .  £4  75.  donated  to  Harvard  College. 
.  .  .  The  wife  of  John  Hutchins  presented  for  wearing 
a  silk  hood,  but  upon  testimony  of  her  "being  brought  up 


Lurking  and  Friendly  Indians  205 

above  the  ordinary  way"  she  was  discharged;   the  wife  of 
Joseph  Swett  fined  105.  for  the  same  offence. 

"  It  is  ordered  that  all  doggs  for  the  space  of  three  weeks 
shall  have  one  legg  tyed  up ;  if  a  man  refuse  to  tye  up  his 
dogg's  legg  and  hee  be  found  scraping  up  fish  in  a  corn 
field,  the  owner  thereof  shall  pay  twelve  pence  damages." 
In  each  hill  of  corn  the  farmer  dropped  a  fish,  shad  and  sal- 
mon being  "  a  drug  on  the  market,  "  and  his  apprentices  con- 
tracted that  they  should  not  eat  salmon  more  than  six 
times  a  week.  Because  the  blossom  of  the  pyrus  opens  on 
the  first  appearance  of  the  shad  in  May,  it  is  commonly 
called  shad-blossom,  and  when  the  apple  orchards  are  filled 
with  huge  white  bouquets,  then  is  the  shad's  greatest  run. 

During  seventy  years  Haverhill  was  never  free  from  the 
lurking  Indian,  and  many  women  and  children  were  carried 
captive  to  Canada.  Perhaps  the  most  remarkable  incident 
in  the  history  of  Indian  warfare  concerned  the  capture  of 
Hannah  Duston,  who,  in  the  words  of  Cotton  Mather, 
despatched  with  Hatchets  her  Sleeping  Oppressors,  and  turned 
back  to  cut  off  the  Scalps  of  these  Ten  Wretches  (who  had 
killed  her  child  and  "sent  several  English  captives  as  they 
began  to  tire  of  their  sad  Journey  to  their  Long  Home"}, 
that  they  might  be  shown  as  silent,  hideous  witnesses  of  her 
unparalleled  adventure.  The  savages  burned  the  house  of 
Thomas  Duston,  but  her  eight  children  were  preserved  by 
the  father's  courage.  As  they  marched  off  toward  safety 
with  the  pace  of  a  child  five  years  old,  Duston  kept  in  the 
''Rear  of  his  Little  Army  of  Unarmed  children,"  menacing 
the  Indians  with  his  gun  from  behind  his  horse  till  the  little 
flock  reached  the  garrison,  a  mile  distant. 

Friendly  Indians  were  of  great  service.  Some  Haverhill 
men,  engaged  with  Captain  Baker  in  an  expedition  near 
Winnipiseogee,  the  Lake  of  The  Smile  of  the  Great  Spirit, 
were  pursued  by  an  overpowering  number  of  warriors. 


206  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

Their  Indian  guide  urged  them  not  to  halt  an  instant  in 
their  march  down  the  Pemmigewasset  River,  and  when  at 


..L 


Crystal  Sunshine  in  Lovers'  Lane  after  a  New  England  Ice-Storm. 

Salisbury  the  fatigued  men  said  they  must  have  refresh- 
ment he  advised  them  to  build  many  fires  and  cut  many 


The  Whittier  Homestead  207 

sticks  to  broil  their  meat  on,  burning  the  end  of  each  as  if 
used,  and  stick  them  in  the  ground.  One  may  picture  the 
disappointed  "Ugh!  ugh!"  of  the  balked  braves  over  the 
smouldering  fires,  as  they  counted  the  sticks  of  too  great  a 
number  of  pale-faces,  and  turned  back  on  their  trail  by  the 
chief's  command,  who  had  doubtless  expected,  in  the  next 
grand  council,  to  have  been  awarded  another  feather  in  his 
war-bonnet,  tipped  by  a  tuft  of  red  horsehair,  signifying 
the  deed  of  great  prowess  in  tomahawking  or  capturing 
these  foes. 

"  Is  it  possible  that  men  had  to  run  for  their  lives  through 
this  tranquil  countryside !"  exclaims  the  traveller,  as  he 
wends  his  way  toward  Amesbury,  by  the  serene  Lakes 
Saltonstall  and  Kenoza,  on  whose  south  side  was  the  great 
ox-common;  his  road  carries  him  around  the  foot  of  the 
hill  crowned  by  Winnikenni  Castle,  toward  the  simple 
Quaker  cottage  where  Whittier  was  born;  here  upon  the 
growing  boy  "the  shades  of  the  prison-house"  began  to 
close,  yet 

"The  Youth,  who  daily  farther  from  the  east 
Must  travel,  still  is  Nature's  Priest, 
And  by  the  vision  splendid 
Is  on  his  way  attended." 

On  Whittier's  eighty-fourth  birthday,  Dr.  Holmes  paid 
him  a  call  and  found  him  unchanged,  clinging  to  the  Quaker 
dress,  beside  him  a  picture  on  glass  of  the  dear  hearthstone 
of  the  Whittier  homestead  which  remains  to-day  almost  as 
pictured  in  Snow-Bound.  The  boy  Whittier  was  invited  to 
pay  a  visit  in  Boston  by  a  relative,  Mrs.  Greene,1  and  started 

1  The  Greene  family  had  what  old  New  England  people  call  the  "  Bachi- 
ler  eyes,  deep,  dark,  burning  eyes,"  inherited  from  the  remarkable  colonial 
preacher,  the  Rev.  Stephen  Bachiler,  of  Hampton.  "These  eyes  were 
marked  in  Hawthorne,  Webster,  Caleb  Gushing,  and  William  Bachiler 
Greene." — "Whittier"  in  Authors  and  Friends,  by  Annie  Fields. 


Bradford  209 

off  in  a  coach  with  great  expectations  in  a  new  homespun 
suit  trimmed  with  "boughten  buttons."  While  sight- 
seeing on  Washington  Street,  he  says,  "I  found  a  terrible 
stream  of  people  and  when  I  got  tired  of  being  jostled,  it 
seemed  as  if  the  folks  might  get  by  if  I  waited  a  little  while." 
So  he  stepped  into  an  alley-way  and  grew  homesick  and 
reflected  that  the  "boughten  buttons"  made  no  difference 
at  all. 

BRADFORD 

Bradford  is  closely  associated  with  Haverhill,  though 
divided  by  the  Merrimack.  Thomas  Kimball's  house  on  the 
Boxford  Road  was  raided  by  the  Indians ;  his  wife  and  five 
children,  who  were  made  captive,  were  set  free  through  the 
intervention  of  Wannalancet.  The  old  powder-house  has 
disappeared  from  Indian  Hill,  but  you  will  find  standing 
the  Dudley  Carleton  house,  used  for  prisoners  of  war  in  the 
Revolution.  The  teacher  of  mathematics,  Benjamin  Green- 
leaf,  was  born  in  Bradford.  Bradford  Academy  is  one  of 
the  oldest  schools  for  girls  in  the  country. 


THE  TRAIL  TO  IPSWICH 

WHEN  the  sun-chariot  wings  its  course  highest  above  the 
Merrimack  valley,  Haverhill's  felicitous  situation  is  most 
in  evidence.  From  out  her  wide  estate  a  series  of  fascinat- 
ing country  roads  swerve  toward  our  Atlantic  seaboard, — • 
salt,  sand-ribboned,  rugged.  The  longest,  most  southerly 
path  veers  toward  Ipswich,— Haverhill's  best  friend  and 
running-mate  in  the  troublous  Indian  days, — swinging 
through  Georgetown  J  around  into  Byfield,  a  part  of  old 
Newbury,  before  crossing  Rowley's  storied  Green  and 
Ipswich's  border.  You  will  discover  that  this  picturesque 
highway  and  byway  divides  splendid  farm-lands,  toning 
into  yellow  green  marsh  by  the  thousand  acre,  well  salted 
indeed  by  the  little  rivers  Mill  and  Parker,  and  on  which 
the  thrifty  farmer  sets  great  store  as  fodder  for  his  cattle. 
Another  and  another  summer  day  tempts  you  this  way ;  it  is. 
a  placid  country  side  laden  with  sweets  of  flowers  and  herbs, 
yet  seldom  of  the  same  humor,  because  sea-mist  and  sun 
play  hide-and-seek  over  a  baker's  dozen  of  hills  in  Ipswich; 
over  Ox-Pasture  and  Prospect  Hill,  in  Rowley;  over  great 
"Sunset  Rock,"  silvery-gray  and  mossy,  at  the  crossroads 
close  by  old  Dummer's  mile-stone,  which  points  out  in  its 
accustomed  imperturbable  manner  that  your  road  covers 
thirty -three  miles  to  Boston  town,  or  five  to  Newburyport 
from  South  Byfield.  It  has  told  the  same  story  since  1708 
to  country  folk  and  city  folk,  to  the  clans  of  Noyes,  Moody, 
Longfellow,  Parsons,  Dummer,  moreover  to  Judge  Sewall, 
who  claimed  a  kinsman  at  every  other  corner  hereabouts, 
his  sisters'  life-partners  having  chosen  Byfield  Parish  as 
their  abiding-place. 

1  The  present  Georgetown  was  a  part  of  the  "accommodations"  offered 
by  the  General  Court  to  Ezekiel  Rogers  and  his  company  in  1638. 


Byfield  Parish  of  "Quid"  Newbury       211 

This  mile-stone  r  saw,  in  1712,  the  building  of  yonder 
country  home  by  ye  honored  Lieutenant  Governor  Dummer ; 
again,  ye  laying  out  of  ye  country  road  to  ye  meeting- 
house ;  it  saw  yearly  the  ceremonious  arrival  of  Lady  Dum- 
mer with  her  coats-of-arms  and  liveries  covered  with  dust 
after  the  long  drive  over  Boston  road  from  their  School 
Street  estate,  close  neighbor  to  Province  House,  the  resi- 
dence of  the  royal  governors  of  Massachusetts.  As  the 
daughter  of  Governor  Dudley,  my  Lady  Katherine  was  ac- 
customed to  entertain  regally  in  Roxbury,  and  it  is  not 
amazing  that  Governor  Shute,  stopping  at  the  Dummer 
mansion  on  his  way  to  Portsmouth,  found  himself  "finely 
entertained." 

Entering  her  mansion  through  the  handsome  grape- 
vined  door,  you  regard  my  lady's  portrait  still  hanging  op- 
posite that  of  her  lord. 2  How  the  aristocratic  dame  would 
lament  the  absence  of  her  favorite  tapestries  from  these 
white-panelled  walls!  The  Governor's  house  is  still  the 
Dummer  Academy,  founded  by  the  Governor  and  opened 
to  pupils  in  1763. 

Byfield  Parish  is  a  unique  patchwork  of  towns.  One 
patch  is  of  old  Rowley's  soil,  and  when  the  company  assem- 
bled to  celebrate  the  two  hundredth  anniversary  of  Byfield 
Congregational  Church  in  1902,  some  were  seated  in  New- 

1  Just  above  Dummer  Academy  on   the   left  of   the  road  to  Byfield 
Station  stands  the  Joseph  Npyes- Knight  house,  now  the  Ambrose  resi- 
dence.    ''In  1727  a  highway  2  rods  wide  was  laid  out  from  ye  country 
road  near  to  his   honor   the   Lieutenant  Governor  Dummer 's  house  to 
the  parsonage  land  in  Byfield  Parish  to  the  land  of  John  Dummer,  Esq., 
Mr.  Richard  Dummer  and  Mr.  Joseph  Noyes."     The  first  Richard  Dum- 
mer was  punished  in  1637  by  the  General  Court  and  "deprived  of  swords, 
gun,  pistols,  shot  and  matches"  because  he  openly  sympathized  with 
"the  heretics  Anne  Hutchinson  and  the  Rev.  John  Wheelwright." 

2  Painted  by  Robert  Feke,  of  Oyster  Bay,  L.  I.     His  masterpiece,  the 
portrait  of  Lady  Wanton,  wife  of  Rev.  Joseph  Wanton,  hangs  in  Red- 
wood Library,  Newport. 


2i2  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

bury,  others  in  Georgetown,  yet  all  were  in  Byfield  Parish. 
In  the  old  parsonage  (1704)  Theophilus  Parsons  was  born; 
prepared  for  college,  and  perhaps  birched  at  "  Dummer"  by 
the  celebrated  Master  Moody,  with  other  eminent  Essex 
County  men ;  he  studied  law  with  the  learned  loyalist,  Judge 
Edmund  Trowbridge,  of  Cambridge,  who  chanced  to  be 


iiiiii     1 


The  Governor  Dummer  Mansion,  South  Byfield. 
Now  the  Administration  Building  of  Dummer  Academy,  opened  in  1763. 

hiding  at  Byfield  in  terror  of  the  "Sons  of  Liberty."  Mr. 
Parsons  in  his  turn  prepared  John  Quincy  Adams  and 
Robert  Treat  Paine  for  law. 

The  first  chapter  in  Mr.  Parsons's  romance  opened  at  a 
dinner  given  by  Judge  Benjamin  Greenleaf  at  his  house 
in  Newburyport.1  Miss  Elizabeth  Greenleaf,  hearing  that 

1  Quid  Newbury,  by  John  J.  Currier,  Damrell  &  Upham. 


Quascacunquen  Falls  213 

the  brilliant  Mr.  Parsons  was  to  be  one  of  their  guests,  de- 
clared that  she  should  not  dare  to  utter  a  word.  "You 
need  not,"  said  her  father,  "he  will  talk  for  you  and 
himself  too,  if  you  wish  it."  Within  a  year  Mr.  Parsons 
married  Miss  Greenleaf,  having  won  that  suit  to  which 
he  always  referred  as  worth  all  the  others  he  had  ever 
gained. 

The  godfather  of  Byfield  was  Nathaniel,  youngest  of  one- 
and-twenty  children  and  one  of  sixteen  who  followed  their 
pious  father,  the  Rev.  Richard  Byfield,  to  church  in  Long 
Button  of  Sussex.  Judge  Nathaniel  Byfield  was,  moreover, 
a  "circuit"  crony  of  Judge  Samuel  Sewall's.  Their  corre- 
spondence about  this  "Infant  Parish"  is  extant,  also  the 
petition  of  Nathaniel  Byfield,  aged  twenty-one,  to  the  Gov- 
ernor and  Council,  in  1674,  stating  that  "being  lately 
married"  he  humbly  requested  discharge  from  going  out  to 
war  against  the  Indians,  "under  benefit  of  the  Law  of  God 
in  24  Deut.  5 :  '  That  when  a  man  hath  taken  a  new  wife 
he  shall  not  go  out  to  warre,  but  he  shall  be  free  at  home 
one  year.'  ' 

Quascacunquen  Falls,  on  the  Parker  River,  where  the 
first  mill-wheel  turned  in  1634,  is  about  a  mile  south  of  By- 
field  Station,  hard  by  the  homestead  of  William  and  Mehit- 
able  (Sewall)  Moody,  birthplace  of  Paul  Moody,  inventor, 
and  of  the  Honorable  William  Moody,  Secretary  of  the  Navy 
under  Roosevelt.  In  the  waters  of  these  Falls,  so  runs  the 
legend,  witches  were  baptized  by  Satan,  taking  an  oath  of 
allegiance  to  evil.  Just  up  Orchard  Road,  beyond  the 
Moody  House,  stands  a  granite  horse-block,  the  sole  rem- 
nant of  the  home-lot  of  the  poet  Longfellow's  grandparents, 
William  Longfellow  and  Anne  Sewall,  his  wife,  a  sister  of 
Judge  Sewall,  who  left  a  lingering  sweet  remembrance  in 
the  wild  sweetbrier  transplanted  from  his  birthplace  at 
Bishop  Stoke,  in  England. 


214  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

Climbing  the  hill  to  Highfields,  the  Captain  Abraham 
Adams  homestead  of  1705,  whence  a  father  and  four  sons 
marched  to  Revolutionary  fields,  one,  Captain  Stephen 
Adams,  walking  to  Valley  Forge  and  back,  you  may  discern 
from  Deacon  Leonard  Adams's  apple-orchard  opposite,  the 
site  of  the  first  ship-yard  of  old  Newbury  on  the  little 
Parker,  sweeping  restfully  through  marsh  meadows  in  a 
wonderful  double  ox-bow.  It  flows  under  Thorlay's  bridge 
on  the  Newburyport  turnpike,  the  once  famous  colonial  road 
from  Boston  to  the  East.  This  is  one  of  three  New  England 
bridge  sites,  aged  two  hundred  and  fifty  years;  "built  by 
Richard  Thorlay  at  his  own  cost,  he  hath  liberty  to  take  2d. 
for  every  horse,  cow,  ox."  Where  the  river  turns  on  itself, 
rises  fascinating  "Doubling  Rock"  close  to  the  Newbury- 
port turnpike,  on  which  is  the  Hale-Boynton  House;  the 
picturesque  gray  gambrel  of  the  John  Noyes  *  house  is  mid- 
way between  "old  Dummer"  and  Newburyport  town — 
"quite  our  idea  of  bustle  and  excitement,"  said  an  old 
Byfield  boy,  now  of  New  York. 

Below  Quascacunquen  Falls  toward  South  Byfield,  you 
are  struck  with  the  charm  of  the  comfortable  yellow  home- 
stead built  in  1 80 1  by  Eben  Parsons  2  a  brother  of  Theo- 
ophilus,  which  he  called  the  Fatherland  Farm.  It  is  now 
the  Forbes  residence. 

1  Other  homesteads  of  Byfield  include  the   Benjamin  Pearson  house, 
the  Richard  Dummer  house,  the  Hill  residence,  the  Root  and  Tenney 
houses,  the  President  Webber-Caldwell  house  and  the  first  female  seminary 
in  America,    1807.     Among  the  pupils  were  Harriet  Newell  and  Mary 
Lyon,  founder  of  Mt.  Holyoke  College.      A  daughter  of  Mt.  Holyoke  is 
the  Fidelia  Fiske  Seminary  in  Oroomiah  of  Persia,  and  sister  seminaries 
have  been  planted  in  Africa  and  other  lands. 

2  Mr.  Parsons  was  a  man  patterned    after  Washington's  heart,  as  he 
was  instrumental  in  advancing  agriculture  by  importing  the  finest  fruit, 
seeds,  and  grain,  besides  cattle  and  sheep.    The  Florentine  marble  mantle, 
carved  with  emblems  of  agriculture,  was  a  tribute  to  him   from  the 
Massachusetts  Society  for  the  Promotion  of  Agriculture.     An  interesting 
sketch  of  the  Eben  Parsons  homestead,  by  Susan  E.  P.  Forbes,  is  in  the 
New  England  Historical  and  Genealogical  Register  of  January,  1896. 


Ipswich  2 1 5 

AGAWAM,     1633. 

In  1634  only  a  narrow  winding  footpath  ran  from  Quas- 
cacunquen  to  Agawam,  "resort  for  the  fish  of  passage." 
Ipswich  has  still  many  of  the  attractions  of  her  seventeenth- 
century  youth ;  from  her  enchanting  reed-grown  river,  great 
Pan,  were  he  not  dead,  might  pluck  a  shepherd's  pipe  and 
summon  his  entire  train  of  immortal  nymphs,  Naiads  from 
Ipswich  brooks,  Oreads  from  her  hills,  and  Nereids  from 
the  ocean,  and,  loveliest  of  all,  a  mortal  Dryad  out  of  the 
heart  of  each  glorious  elm ;  happily,  we  too  feel  the  presence 
of  some  sympathetic  spirit  dwelling  in  every  tree,  and  with 
the  ancients  hold  it  an  impious  act  to  destroy  one  wantonly. 
From  under  the  low  rafters  of  these  gambrel  roofs  which 
lean  toward  the  street,  generations  "  of  the  salt  of  the  earth" 
have  been  sifted  throughout  the  States,  an  indispensable 
strata  in  the  Union ;  here  is  the  veritable  Heartbreak  Hills 
of  the  old,  old  legend  where  a  dusky  Ariadne  kept  tryst 
with  her  sailor  lover;  as  the  story  runs  in  Mrs.  Thaxter's 
words : 

"  For  he  cried,  as  he  kissed  her  wet  eyes  dry, 

'  I  '11  come  back,  sweetheart,  keep  your  faith.' 
She  said,  '  I  will  watch  while  the  moons  go  by'; 

"  He  never  came  back!     Yet  faithful  still 

She  watched  from  the  hilltop  her  life  away. 
And  the  townsfolk  christened  it  Heartbreak  Hill, 
And  it  bears  the  name  to  this  very  day." 

Certainly  Ipswich,  in  some  respects,  is  not  the  Agawam 
planted  by  John  Winthrop,  Jr.,  where  the  eminent  Rev. 
Nathaniel  Rogers,  a  descendant  of  the  Smithfield  martyr, 
preached;  no  longer  are  recorded  the  bountiful  entertain- 
ments on  such  occasions  as  an  old-style  house-raising  or 
the  minister's  funeral,  nor  on  frosty  Sabbath  mornings  does 


the  grave  and  worthy  preacher  without  dissimulation  place 
a  jug  beside  him  on  the  pulpit  desk!  Mayhap,  this  gossip 
was  of  Ipswich's  neighbors — Beverly  or  Boxford  town. 

Boxford  continues  to  be  the  traditional  New  England 
town  in  topographical  aspect.  A  French  traveller  drew  a 
capital  picture  of  Boxford  in  describing  Plainfield,  Conn., 
as  he  saw  it  in  1781.  The  Marquis  de  Chastellux  says: 

.  .  .  for  what  is  called  in  America  a  town  or  township  is 
only  a  certain  number  of  houses  dispersed  over  a  great 
space,  but  which  belong  to  the  same  incorporation  and 
which  send  deputies  to  the  general  assembly  of  the  "  state." 
The  centre  or  headquarters  is  the  meeting-house  or  church. 
This  church  stands  sometimes  single  and  is  sometimes  sur- 
rounded by  four  or  five  houses  only;  whence  it  happens 
that  when  a  traveller  asks  the  question:  How  far  is  it  to 
such  a  town?  he  is  answered,  You  are  there  already;  but 
when  he  specifies  the  place  he  wishes  to  be  at,  he  not  un- 
frequently  is  told,  You  are  seven  or  eight  miles  from  it. 

This  tallies  with  an  experience  of  the  writer:  we 
alighted  at  Boxford,  only  to  be  told  that  the  place  we 
wished  "to  be  at"  was  seven  miles  distant  toward  the 
North  Andover  boundary;  nevertheless,  in  spite  of  "kind 
er'  ketchy  weather,"  the  unexpected  drive  over  sweet  hills 
and  dales  in  old  Boxford,  "between  the  drops,"  was  a 
never-to-be-forgotten  pleasure. 

THE    PATH    TO    PLUM    ISLAND 

Haverhill's  road  to  Plum  Island  skirts  Groveland's  famous 
pines  and  passes  through  West  Newbury  and  Newburyport. 
The  colonists  at  the  Port  spoke  rather  disdainfully  of  their 
Upper  Woods  (West  Newbury)  as  "waste  land,"  fit  only 
for  "perpetual  commons,"  where  are  now  as  fine  farms  as 
one  would  wish  to  see.  Coffin's  Lane  recalls  Tristram 


B  H* 
~    SI 


i    £ 


218  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

Coffin,  who  purchased  a  large  tract  of  Edward  Rawson,1 
Newbury's  town  clerk,  later  secretary  of  the  Colony.  Raw- 
son's  Meadow  is  near  the  upper  bridge  of  the  fetching  little 
Artichoke  River,  an  abiding-place  for  rare  giant  birches, 
fern-dells,  and  sweet  azalea, — the  very  heart  of  elfdom  and 
eerie  legends.  Bewitching,  indeed,  is  Curzon's  mill 2  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Artichoke,  on  the  spot  where  Sergeant  John 
Emery  ground  the  town's  grists  in  1679.  To  this  day,  what- 
ever corn  is  brought  to  the  mill  must  be  ground,  or  else  the 


1  Edward   Rawson's    daughter,    Rebecca,   the    heroine    of    Whittier's 
Leaves  from  Margaret  Smith's  Journal,  occasionally  dated  at  "Newbury 
on  the  Merrimac,"  married  Thomas  Rumsey,  who  pretended  to  be  Sir 
Thomas  Hale,  Jr.,  a  nephew  of  Lord  Chief  Justice  Hale.     They  sailed  for 
England  on  the  honeymoon.      On  the  day  after  leaving  the  ship,  "one  of 
the  most  beautiful,  polite,  and  accomplished  young  ladies  of  Boston" 
found  her  trunks  stuffed  with  paper,  her  jewels  flown  as  well  as  the  fic- 
titious young  lord.     Portraits  of  the   Rawsons  handed   down  through 
Ebenezer  Rawson  and  Judge  Dorr  of  Mendon  hang  in  the  rooms  of  the 
New  England  Historic  and  Genealogical  Society.     A  portrait  of  Judge 
Samuel  Sewall  in  Memorial  Hall,  Cambridge,  the  gift  of  Edward  S,  Mose- 
ley,  was  unearthed  in  a  garret  of  the  Greenleaf  family. 

NOTE, — In  answer  to  those  of  the  old  country  who  declared  it  would 
be  impossible  to  subsist  in  Newbury,  Judge  Sewall  prophesied:  "As  long 
as  Plum  Island  shall  faithfully  keep  the  commanded  Post;  Notwith- 
standing the  hectoring  words  and  hard  Blows  of  the  proud  and  boister- 
ous Ocean ;  As  long  as  any  Salmon  or  Sturgeon  shall  swim  in  the  streams 
of  Merrimack;  or  any  Perch  or  Pickeril  in  Crane  Pond  .  .  .  As  long 
as  any  Cattel  shall  be  fed  with  the  Grass  growing  in  the  meadows,  which 
do  humbly  bow  themselves  before  Turkie-Hill;  As  long  as  any  Sheep 
shall  walk  upon  Old-Town  Hills,  and  shall  from  thence  pleasantly  look 
down  upon  the  River  Parker;  .  .  .  As  long  as  Nature  shall  not  grow 
Old  and  dote;  but  shall  constantly  remember  to  give  the  rows  of  Indian 
Corn  their  education,  by  Pairs,  So  long  shall  Christians  be  born  there; 
and  being  first  made  meet,  shall  from  thence  be  Translated  to  be  made 
partakers  of  the  Inheritance  of  the  Saints  in  Light." 

2  The  picturesque  homestead  which  stood  by  the  bridge,  built  for  a 
hunting  lodge  in  1783  by  Stephen  Hooper,  subsequently  enlarged  and 
unhappily  burned  in  January,  1903,  was  the  home  of  the  Misses  Curzon 
and  Miss  Marquand.     It  was  furnished  with  family  heirlooms  of  the 
seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries. 


Pipe  Stave  Hill,  West  Newbury          219 

ancient  water  privileges  are  forfeited.  Judge  Sewall  writes 
in  1708 :  "  Visited  Cousin  Jacob  Toppan  and  laid  a  stone  of 
the  foundation  of  ye  meeting  house  at  Pipe  Staff  Hill,"  so 
called  because  its  primeval  growth  contributed  staves  for 
West  Indian  molasses  hogsheads.  About  the  time  of  the 
great  awakening  in  the  Colonies  preceding  the  Revolution, 


"And  Cur  son's  bowery  mill." 

JUNE  ON  THE  MERRIMAC. 

the  Dalton  country  house  on  Pipe  Stave  Hill  became  re- 
nowned for  the  hospitality  dispensed  by  Tristram  Dalton, 
a  gentleman  of  the  old  school  and  ardent  patriot,  who,  with 
Caleb  Strong,  were  the  two  first  United  States  Senators 
from  Massachusetts.  Mr.  Dalton  was  graduated  from 
Harvard  in  the  class  of  John  Adams.  The  charms  of  this 
"patriarchal  family"  have  been  sung  by  many  travellers. 


220  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

Samuel  Breck  z  relates  the  story  of  their  subsequent  mis- 
fortune, when  political  ambition  lured  Tristram  Dalton 
from  his  peaceful  abode.  Brissot  de  Warville  writes  a 
naive  description  of  his  visit  on  Pipe  Stave  Hill : 

This  is  one  of  the  finest  situations  that  can  be  imagined. 
Mr.  Dalton  has  fine  apples,  grapes  and  pears,  but 
he  complains  that  children  steal  them,  an  offence  readily 
pardoned  in  a  free  country.  .  .  .  The  Americans  are 
not  accustomed  to  what  we  call  grand  feasts.  They  treat 
strangers  as  they  treat  themselves  everyday  and  they  live 
well.  They  say  they  are  not  anxious  to  starve  themselves 
the  week  in  order  to  gormandize  on  Sunday.  This  trait 
will  paint  to  you  a  people  at  their  ease,  who  wish  not  to 
torment  themselves  for  show. 

"I,  Great  Tom,  Indian,"  agreed  to  part  with  his  hill  for 
three  pounds.  Indian  Hill  has  been  in  the  Poore  family 
for  eight  generations.  Century-old  chestnut  trees  stand 
guard  Indian  file  over  the  stately  garden.  From  a  honey- 
suckle bower  on  the  hilltop,  and  at  every  step  down  the 
straight  box-bordered  walk  of  great  length  is  a  fascinating 
peep  through  arching  foliage  of  the  gables  of  Indian  Hill 
Farm,  its  lovely  trellised  porch  tessellated  by  grape-leaf 
shadows.  The  farm  is  a  treasure-house  of  furniture  of  the 
colonial  day,  collected  by  Major  Ben :  Perley  Poore.  Each 
room  has  a  distinct  individuality,  each  weapon  stacked 
over  this  stairway  has  its  camp-fire  yarn.  From  "high- 
boy" and  oaken  chest  you  may  pull  out  silk  pelisses,  quilted 
silk  petticoats,  a  scarlet  evening  cloak,  sweeping  ostrich 
plumes,  gossamer  laces ;  outside  the  casement  the  clamber- 

1  Diary  and  Recollections  of  Samuel  Breck,  edited  by  Horace  E.  Scud- 
der.  The  Dalton  estate  passed  into  the  possession  of  Dr.  Robinson,  the 
family  physician  of  all  the  country  roundabout ;  through  his  daughter  it 
came  into  the  Moody  family,  and  is  now  occupied  by  Horace  J.  Moody 
of  Yonkers,  N.  Y. 


222  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

ing  red  and  white  roses  beckon  with  the  sweet  assurance  of 
many  fragrant  summers,  and  this  hawthorn,  like  a  huge 
pink  bouquet,  recalls  Victor  Hugo's  words:  "But  just  look 
at  the  marvellous  rose  made  by  a  sprig  of  hawthorn,  when 
looked  at  through  a  microscope;  just  compare  the  finest 
Mechlin  lace  with  that!"  The  curious  circular  study  was 
designed  by  Major  Poore;  on  every  hand  are  trophies  of  a 
world-wide  acquaintance;  friends  were  constantly  "drop- 
ping in"  from  far  and  wide,  and  his  table  was  often  reset 
three  times  for  dinner. 

"THE  LAURELS"  AND  LAUREL  HILL 

Some  four  miles  from  Newburyport,  on  the  senior  Mose- 
ley  estate,  in  a  pine-shaded  water-bound  nook,  grows  an 
extravagant  bed  of  mountain  laurel,  most  unusual  in  the 
lower  valley  of  the  Merrimack.  Whittier  was  among  the 
annual  June  pilgrirns  who  went  together  to  keep  the  Feast 
of  Flowers  at  "  The  Laurels  "  by  "  the  rippling  river's  rune." 
One  of  his  poems  in  honor  of  the  day  sang  of  the  west  wind 
blowing  down  Our  River,  which  doubtless  sent  a  ray  of  glad- 
ness into  the  prison  of  Jean  Pierre  Brissot,  the  Girondist 
leader,  who,  in  his  youthful  travels,  became  enamored  of  the 
prospect  from  Laurel  Hill. 

On  the  summit  from  "Moulton  Castle,"  Sir  Edward 
Thornton,  the  British  Minister,  and  his  guest,  Lord  Gray, 
looking  across  Deer  Island  to  the  open  sea,  agreed  that  no 
prospect  in  the  Old  World  could  surpass  it  in  beauty.  On 
this  site  is  to  be  built  the  country  house  of  Charles  W. 
Moseley,  who  now  occupies  the  quaint  John  Hall  Bartlett 
house  of  1792,  at  the  foot  of  his  Laurel  Hill  estate,  near 
Bartlett  Springs.  Its  unique  door-stone  is  the  toothed 
granite  mill-wheel  which  ground  the  bark  in  the  old  tannery, 
a  successor  of  the  Bartlett  tannery  of  1650.  This  willow- 
fringed  road  is  the  same  over  which  Washington  passed  to 


oq 


224  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

Amesbury  Ferry ;  the  bargemen  in  white  awaiting  him  are 
said  to  have  come  from  Gloucester  and  Marblehead  to  row 
their  general  over  the  peaceful  Merrimack,  as  hitherto  they 
piloted  him  in  perilous  depths  of  night  across  East  River 
after  the  battle  of  Brooklyn  Heights,  and  again  battled  suc- 
cessfully with  the  Delaware's  ice-floes. 

From  Laurel  Hill  a  charming  two-mile  drive  winds  through 
the  Moseley  woodland  to  the  Frederick  Strong  Moseley 
house,"  Maudesleigh."  Below  the  wide  slope  of  velvet  turf 
spreads  the  river-valley  in  all  its  beauty.  John  Evelyn 
would  have  written  in  praise  of  this  most  sweet  and  de- 
licious garden  with  its  pergola,  of  the  rows  of  sweet-peas 
tied  in  luxuriant  bunches  of  a  single  variety,  of  the  Canter- 
bury bells,  larkspur,  and  poppies,  seething  with  color,  ac- 
centuated by  the  salt  mists  which  climb  the  river  thus  far. 
On  the  road  from  Maudesleigh  to  Curzon's  mill  is  the  old 
burying-ground  of  Sawyer's  Hill. 

Towards  Newburyport  you  pass  the  site  of  Queen  Anne's 
Chapel I  "on  the  plains";  the  bell  was  presented  by  the 
Bishop  of  London.  Its  successor  is  St.  Paul's,  whose  first 
treasurer  was  Michael  Dalton.  Carr's  Island,  whence 
George  Carr  ran  the  earliest  Newburyport  ferry,  is  now  the 
sheep  farm  of  the  Hon.  Harvey  N.  Shepard. 

1  In  Belleville  Cemetery  are  stones  erected  to  the  Rev.  Matthias  Plant, 
also  Samuel  Bartlett  and  Joshua  Brown,  founders  of  Queen  Anne's 
Chapel.  Inscriptions  in  Currier's  Quid  Newbury. 


NEWBURYPORT,  1635-1764 


"I  left  Newbury  Port  the  ijth  at  ten  in  the  morning,  and  often  stopped 
before  I  lost  sight  of  this  pretty  little  town,  for  I  had  great  pleasure  in  enjoying 
the  different  aspects  it  presents." — MARQUIS  DE  CHASTELLUX,  1782. 

FTER  a  visit  to  "Quid"  Newbury  one  is 
haunted  by  the  scent  of  apple  blossoms  and 
salt-sea  marshes ;  the  farms,  as  softly  green 
as  those  of  Old  England;  and,  moreover, 
by  dreams  of  stately  ships  and  wary  priv- 
ateers ;  of  balls  and  routs  where  bells  and 
beaux,  in  French  velvets  and  laces,  dancing 
and  drinking  syllabubs,  are  startled  by  a 
great  earthquake T  or  tidings  of  a  wreck  on 
the  sands  of  Plum  Island.  These  were  days  of  pomp  and 
splendor.  A  daughter  of  the  Dalton  house  went  forth  a  bride 
in  a  satin-lined  coach  and  outriders,  drawn  by  six  white 
horses.  The  dashing  young  merchant,  Nathaniel  Tracy,  sent 
out  fleets  of  successful  privateers,  and  married  the  greatest 
beauty  of  the  day,  a  daughter  of  Colonel  Jeremiah  Lee  of 
Marblehead.  So  extensive  were  his  estates,  that  in  travel- 
ling from  Newburyport  to  Philadelphia  he  could  rest  each 
night  in  his  own  mansion.  One  of  his  transient  summer 
houses  was  the  stone  garrison  house  in  Oldtown, where,  at  the 
east  window,  he  was  wont  to  sit  and  watch  his  ships  come 
in  over  the  bar. 

It  was  at  about  this  period  that  many  men  of  distinction 
were  feted  in  Newburyport.  The  Marquis  de  Chastellux 

1  Newbury's  first  earthquake,  in  1638,  uprooted  the  springing  corn  and 
frightened  the  Colonists  out  of  their  wits.  Winthrop  says:  "It  came  with 
a  noise  like  continued  thunder  or  the  rattling  of  coaches  in  London." 
The  second  lasted  an  afternoon,  then  came  the  third,  and  finally  the 
"bells  and  dishes  were  shaken  so  often  that  the  records  spoke  of  "the 
earthquake." 

225 


Visit  of  the  Marquis  de  Chastellux         227 

writes  entertainingly  of  his  visit,  with  other  Frenchmen  of 
note,  to  this  effect: 

Mr.    John    Tracy    came   with 


two  handsome  carriages  and  con- 
ducted me  and  my  Aide-de-Camp 
to    his    country-house. 
I  went  by  moonlight  to  see  the 
garden,   which    is    composed   of 


different  terraces. 


The  house 


NEWBURYPORT 


LANDMARKS  : 
Watts,  his  cellar. 


Market      Square. 
Old  South  Church 


Whitefield,  and  Whispering  Gallery. 
Birthplace  Wm.  Lloyd  Garrison. 
Marine  Museum,  State  St.  Tracy 
house  (1771);  Washington  enter- 
tained here  (1789);  now  Public  Li- 


brary.        Rooms    of 
Historical  Society. 


the   Newbury 
Y.   M.    C.   A. 

Building,  the  Corliss  Memorial.  Tris- 
tram Dalton-Moses  Brown  house, 
now  Dalton  Club.  Wolfe  Tavern, 
Davenport's  Inn  (1762),  corner  Fish 
(State)  St.  Fountain  Park  and  the 
Frog  Pond.  Jonathan  Jackson- 
"  Lord "  Timothy  Dexter-George 
Corliss  house,  High  St.  Counterpart 
of  the  old  Job  Pillsbury  house,  de- 


stroyed   by    fire, 
Misses  Getchell. 


residence    of    the 
Toppan's  house 


(1670),  on  Toppan's  Lane.      Atkin- 
son Park. 


is  very  handsome  and  everything 
breathes  that  air  of  magnificence 
accompanied  with  simplicity, 
which  is  only  to  be  found  amongst 
merchants.  At  ten  o'clock  an  ex- 
cellent supper  was  served,  we 
drank  good  wine,  Miss  Lee  sung 
and  prevailed  on  Messieurs  de 
Vaudreuil  *  and  [Baron  de]  Taley- 
rand  to  sing  also ;  towards  mid- 
night the  ladies  withdrew.  Mr.  Tracy,  according  to  the 
custom  of  the  country,  offered  us  pipes,  which  were  accepted 
by  M.  de  Taleyrand,  and  M.  de  Montesquieu.  .  .  .  Mr. 
Tracy  interested  me  greatly  with  the  vicissitudes  of  his  for- 
tune since  the  beginning  of  the  war.  At  the  end  of  1777,  his 
brother  and  he  had  lost  one  and  forty  ships  and  he  had  not 
a  ray  of  hope  but  in  a  marque  of  eight  guns  of  which  he  had 
no  news.  Walking  one  day  with  his  brother  and  reasoning 
together  on  the  means  of  subsisting  their  families,  they  per- 
ceived a  sail  making  for  the  harbour.  He  immediately 
interrupted  the  conversation,  saying,  '  Perhaps  it  is  a  prize 
for  me.'  His  brother  laughed  at  him,  but  he  immediately 
went  to  meet  the  ship  and  found  it  was  in  fact  a  prize  for 
him;  worth  five-and-twenty  thousand  pounds  sterling.  .  . 
In  1781,  he  lent  five  thousand  pounds  to  the  State  for  the 
cloathing  of  the  troops,  and  that  only  on  the  receipt  of  the 

1  The  Marquis  de  Vaudreuil's  squadron  was  then  at  Boston,  and  some 
of  his  ships  were  refitting  and  taking  in  masts  at  Portsmouth. 


228  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

Treasurer,  yet  his  quota  of  taxes  that  very  year  amounted 
to  six  thousand  pounds.1 

Good  old  mercantile  times  were  these,  before  the  Em- 
bargo Act  and  the  great  fire,  the  cause  of  deserted  wharves 
and  decline  of  the  ship-master.  Newburyport  has  substi- 
tuted many  other  successful  industries,  among  them  the 
appropriate  manufacture  of  silver  goods  in  colonial  designs. 

The  city's  natural  attractions  are  greater  than  ever.  Her 
elm-arched  thoroughfare  is  literally  a  High  Street  of  charm- 
ing homes,  old  and  new,  presided  over  by  the  mitre  of  St. 
Paul's,  the  Diocesan  Church  of  Bishop  Bass,  first  Episcopal 
Bishop  of  Massachusetts.  The  altar  tablets  were  a  gift 
from  Queen  Anne.  In  the  vestry  a  tablet  records  the  gift  to 
the  parish  of  $333.33  by  Timothy  Dexter.2  The  beautiful 
spire  of  the  church  of  the  First  Religious  Society  of  New- 
buryport is  remarked  from  every  approach  to  the  city. 

In  interesting  contrast  is  odd  little  Joppa  and  its  clam- 
houses,  where,  in  1640,  sturgeon  were  pickled  for  the  Euro- 
pean market.  An  old  Newbury porter  instead  of  saying 
from  Dan  to  Beersheba,  says  from  "Joppa  Flats  to  Grass- 
hopper Plains."  On  being  questioned  about  Grasshopper 
Plains  (the  high  plateau  on  the  road  to  West  Newbury, 

1  Travels  in  North  America  in  the  years  1780,  1781  and  1782  by  the  Mar- 
quis de  Chastellux,  one  of  the  forty  members  of  the  French  Academy,  and 
Major-General  in  the  French  army,  serving  under  Count  dc  Rochambeau. 
Translated  from  the  French  by  an  English  gentleman  who  resided  in 
America  at  that  period. 

2  "Lord"  Timothy  Dexter  said:  "I  am  the  first  in  the  East,  the  first 
in  the  West  and  the  greatest  Philosopher  in  the  known  world."     In  A 
Pickle  to  the  Knowing  Ones  he  explains  the  origin  of  his  fabulous  (?)  for- 
tune as  being  acquired  by  such  odd,  lucky  strokes  as  sending  forty-two 
thousand  warming  pans  to  the  West  Indies,  seized  upon  with  avidity  by 
sugar-dealers  as  dippers  and  strainers  for  the  syrup.     In  his  second  edi- 
tion, because  the  knowing  ones  "complaine  of  my  book,"  he  places  all 
stops  by  themselves  that  they  might  "pepper  and  salt  it  as  they  pleased" 


r\      ^    "^ 

a    cs   o 

.OS-5! 

§      «a    <» 


§c   •-  S* 

Sc   ~0     ^ 


230  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

whose  wells  dried  up  during  the  great  earthquake),  he  will 
tell  you  that  the  soil  is  so  sandy  that  even  grasshoppers 
cannot  get  a  living,  so  they  sit  on  the  fence  and  bark. 

NEWBURY — OLDTOWN   (WESCUSSAUCOJ,   1635 

"Always  afternoon"  it  is  said  to  be  in  sedate  and  beauti- 
ful  Oldtown.     The   lover   of   colonial   paths   will   sail   up 

Parker  River  from  Ipswich,  and 
land  with  the  Puritans  under  the 
shadow  of  Oldtown  hill;  here 
paced  their  lonely  night-watch  to 
spy  the  lurking  Indian.  Oldtown 
hill  is  the  first  land  sighted  by  the 
approaching  mariner.  General 

F.   Gould  of  Newburyport.        Noyes     .—          ..  .  -  ... 

house  (1646),  west  India  or  Loveirs  Greely,   returning  out  of  perilous 


NEWBURY— OLDTOWN 

LANDMARKS:  Parker  River  Bridge, 
Oldtown  Hill.  The  Coffin  house 
(1654).  Oldtown  Church.  Oldtown 
Burying  Ground  (1643),  site  of  first 
Oldtown  Church;  floating  island, 
which  used  to  rise  and  fall  with  the 
water  some  eight  feet,  with  its  six 
large  trees.  "  The  veteran  Elm  of 
Newbury  '  (1717) ;  poem  by  Hannah 


Lane.  Arnold  tablet.  Upper  Green  Arctic  seas,  hailed  with  unspeakable 

and  Oldtowa  Pond.  Spencer-Pierce 
house,  Little's  Lane.  Stephen  Swett- 
March-Ilsley  house  (1670). 


joy  that  serene,  blue,  rounded 
height  guarding  his  native  town. 
Not  far  from  Oldtown  Green  is  the  farm  selected  by 
Nicholas  Noyes,  first  settler,1  on  which  is  the  home  of 
William  Little,  President  of  the  Newbury  Historical  Society. 
On  this  street  (Green)  Sir  William  Pepperell  lost  and  found 
a  silver  cup  whilst  he  was  enlisting  men  for  his  successful 

1  Among  Newbury's  ninety  proprietors  were  Percival  and  John  Lowle, 
our  poet's  kin.  Percival  Lowle  wrote  A  Funeral  Elegie  on  Governor 
Winthrop's  death,  preserved  on  a  printed  broadside  (The  Lowell  Gene- 
alogy, by  Delmar  R.  Lowell) : 

"You  English  M attachusians  all 

Forbear  some  time  from  sleeping. 
Let  everyone  both  great  and  small 
Prepare  themselves  for  weeping. 

"He  was  New  England's  Pelican 

New  England's  Gubernator 
He  was  New  England' s  Solomon 
New  England's  Conservator." 


Fishing-Reel  at  Flat-iron  Point,  Joppa. 


232  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

expedition  against  Louisburg  on  Cape  Breton  Island  in 
1745.  The  Atkinson  house,  long  vacant  after  the  hideous 
witch  tragedies  of  1690,  was  a  foolish  bugbear  to  little  chil- 
dren, who  ran  quickly  by,  believing  it  haunted,  only  be- 
cause it  was  connected  with  Goody  Martin. x  At  the  Salem 
trial  the  principal  evidence  against  this  excellent  woman 
was  that,  having  walked  from  her  home  by  the  Powow  to 
the  Atkinson  house  after  a  rain-storm,  no  mud  was  seen  on 
her  shoes  or  gown. 

It  is  related  of  the  Toppan  house  that  Abigail  Wiggles- 
worth,  "the  Day  0'  Dooms  daughter,"  was  visiting  in  New- 
bury.  Miss  Abigail,  seeing  a  house  frame  going  up,  asked 
of  Dr.  Christopher  Toppan,  "Whose  new  house  is  that?" 
"Yours,  madam,  if  you  please,"  he  answers,  speaking  in 
advance  for  his  brother  Samuel,  who  was  building  it.  Even 
Cupid's  arrow  was  sped  by  the  colonial  ministers'  extraor- 
dinary authority.  Good  Dr.  Toppan,  during  his  fifty-one 
years  of  pastoral  office,  "would  speak  his  mind."  A  child 
was  presented  for  baptism  by  Mr.  -  —  and  his  wife.  Dr. 
Toppan,  having  no  confidence  in  the  man's  sincerity,  ad- 
dressed the  congregation  with  these  words,  "I  baptize  this 
child  wholly  on  the  woman's  account." 

Newburyport  citizens  were  highly  concerned  in  Revolu- 
tionary doings.  The  Hon.  Caleb  Gushing  says  that  a  town 
meeting  was  called  April  3 ,  1770,  "on  suspicion  that  a  wagon- 
load  of  tea  had  been  bro't  to  town." 

"As  the  Mohawks  kind  of  thought 
The  Yankees  had  n't  ought 
To  drink  that  are  tea." 

1  Susannah  Martin  of  Amesbury  was  the  only  "witch-wife"  hung  from 
the  north  side  of  the  Merrimack.  Whittier  has  woven  the  romance  of 
her  daughter,  Mabel  Martin,  into  a  harvest  idyl:  "Let  Goody  Martin 
rest  in  peace,  I  never  knew  her  harm  a  fly,"  cried  Esek  Harnden,  Mabel's 
staunch  lover. 


Newbury — Oldtown  233 

In  September,  1775,  the  town  had  quite  a  martial  appear- 
ance. General  Washington  had  sent  a  detachment  to 
embark  from  Xewburyport l  against  Canada,  by  way  of  the 
Kennebec,  under  command  of  Colonel  Benedict  Arnold, 
Lieutenant-Colonel  Christopher  Greene  (of  Rhode  Island), 
and  Major  Timothy  Bigelow  (of  Massachusetts).  On  the 
corner  of  Rolfe's  Lane  were  encamped  three  companies  of 
riflemen,  commanded  by  Captain  Daniel  Morgan.  The 
other  troops,  including  thirty  Newbury  men  under  Captain 
Ward,  occupied  two  of  the  rope-walks. 

1  The  journal  of  Major  Return  Jonathan  Meigs  witnesses  Newburyport's 
cordiality: 

"Seventeenth,  Sunday.  Attended  divine  service  at  the  reverend  Mr. 
Parson's  meeting.  Dined  at  Mr.  Nathaniel  Tracy's.  Eighteenth.  Dined 
at  Mr.  Tristram  Dalton's. 

"Nineteenth.  Embarked  our  whole  detachment  ...  on  board 
ten  transports." 

Many  names  famous  in  after  years  accompanied  this  little  army  on  the 
sloops  Britannia  and  Admiral.  Aaron  Burr  and  Matthew  Ogden  of  New 
Jersey,  John  I.  Henry  (later,  Judge  Henry) ,  Captain  (later,  General)  Dear- 
born of  New  Hampshire;  chaplain,  the  Rev.  Samuel  Spring  of  Newbury- 
port. 


THE  CROW'S  PATH  TO  SALISBURY 

THE  third,  or  crow's  path  to  the  sea  from  Haverhill,  lies 
over  a  superb,  rolling  country  of  hills  and  dales,  ending 

where 

.  .  .  Salisbury's  beach  of  shining  sand, 
And  yonder  island's  wave-smoothed  stand 
Saw  the  adventurer's  tiny  sail."  l 

As  you  cross  the  Whittier  brook  in  East  Haverhill  you 
see  him,  a  blessed  Barefoot  Boy,  cheerily  whistling  on  his 
way  to  the  rude  schoolhouse  set  amidst  sumach  and  tangled 
blackberry  vines:  desks  carved  by  many  a  heedless  jack- 
knife,  charcoal  frescoes  on  the  wall,  and  after  school  a  tiny 
figure  in  the  doorway  with  checked  apron  and  tangled  curls, 
saying  shyly  to  the  little  boy : 

"  I  'm  sorry  that  I  spelt  the  word: 
I  hate  to  go  above  you." 

Flying  from  book  knowledge,  prince  and  master  of  all 
out  doors,  the  barefoot  boy  shows  his  wee,  sweet  playmate 
the  haunt  of  the  wild  bee,  where  the  tortoise  sleeps,  and 
how  the  woodchuck  digs  his  hole,  together  with  the  "archi- 
tectural plans  of  the  gray  hornet,"  and  a  thousand  pranks 
of  green  growing  things,  every  aspect  of  which  Whittier  by- 
and-by  lovingly  traced,  treating  to  long  breaths  of  clear, 
country  sunshine  generations  of  school  children  hemmed  in 
by  brick  and  asphalt. 

The  poet  has  set  before  the  "grown-ups"  with  dramatic 
power  a  feast  of  simples  gathered  from  the  grand  story- 
telling evenings  of  winter.  Current  events  culled  from  the 
Almanac  and  the  meagre  weekly  newspaper  were  few  and 
far  between,  thus,  for  entertainment,  all  the  family  wit  was 

1  Referring  to  Captain  John  Smith's  exploration  of  the  coast  in  1614. 

234 


The  Countess  of  Rocks  Village  235 


called  into  play ;  the 
boy  Whittier  listen- 
ed spell-bound  to 
his  father's  adven- 
tures in  the  Canadi- 
an wilderness ;  more 
marvellous  yet  were 
the  witch-tales  of 
his  uncle,  who  actu- 
ally believed  that 
charms  were  brewed 
under  the  moon ;  his 
mother's  stories 
were  of  miraculous 
escapes  of  her  grand- 
parents during  sav- 
age raids  against  the 
block  houses  on  the 
Cocheco,  and  of 
the  wizard  Bantam 
and  his  "conjuring 
book,"  which  he  solemnly  opened  when  consulted. 


Salisbury  Beach. 
The  sea,  the  sea,  the  open  sea. 


The  romance  of  The  Countess  tempts  you  to  a  pilgrimage 
to  read  her  epitaph  on  the  brier-tangled  slope  by  the  Merri- 
mack,  near  the  old  covered  Rocks  Bridge.  Long  ago  the 
Count  Francois  de  Vipert,  "  an  exile  from  the  Gascon  land," 
with  a  cousin,  Joseph  Rochemont  de  Poyen,  found  refuge 
at  Rocks  Village;  the  former  gained  the  hand  of  Mary 
Ingalls,  a  lovely  maid.  Her  wedding  gown,  of  "pink  satin 
with  a  white  lace  over-dress,"  was  the  wonder  of  the  village ; 
but,  alas !  the  sweet  young  Countess  died  in  one  short  year 
and  the  Count  returned  to  his  own  land.1 

1  The  Countess  is  inscribed  to  Dr.  Elias  Weld  of  Haverhill,  Whittier's 
beloved  country  doctor,  who,  as  he  went  duty's  lonely  round  in  an  ancient 
sulky,  "made  friends  o'  the  woods  and  rocks." 


i 

it, 


AMESBURY 

LANDMARKS :  Whittier's  home 
(1836-1892).  Statue  of  Josiah 
Bartlett,  the  second  "  signer  "  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence.  Macy 
or  Griffin  house  (1654).  Powow 
Hill.  Rocky  Hill  Meeting-House 
(1785).  Union  Cemetery,  where 
Whittier  lies.  Y.  M.  C.  A.  Building. 
Carriage  Hill.  Hawkswood,  resi- 
dence of  David  Wallace  of  New  York. 


AMESBURY,  1638-1668 

TURNING  back  from  Rocks  Village  to  the  high  road,  you 
find  yourself  in  Amesbury's  "West  Parish,"  now  Merrimac, 
beautifully  situated  in  the  high 
"  Pond  District "  ;  among  its  home- 
steads is  the  Challis  house,  more 
than  two  centuries  old. 

Salisbury  new  town  was  named 
Amesbury  on  the  establishment  of 
a  ferry  from  Newbury ;  her  name- 
sake oversea  was  so  called  from 
the  "anointed  stones"  of  a  Druidical  temple.  This  Almes- 
bury  is  most  familiar  to  us  through  the  Idylls  of  the  King  as 
the  traditional  refuge  of  Guinevere,  whose  Defence  was 
written  by  William  Morris  ere  Tennyson's  classic  delighted 
the  world.  Amesbury  seems  a  veritable  inland  Marblehead, 
with  quaintly-odd  houses  set  along  her  river  highway  wind- 
ing to  the  toll-bridge,  the  oldest  Chain  Bridge  in  the  country. 
In  our  earliest  maritime  history  Amesbury's  wharves  were 
alive  with  shipbuilders.  At  little  Powow's  broad  mouth 
was  launched  the  ship  Potty,  the  oldest  vessel  afloat;  also 
the  Alliance,1  which  played  an  unlooked-for  part  in  John 

1  The  Alliance  was  the  best  frigate  of  her  day,  built  with  twenty-eight 
long  i2-pounders  on  the  gun-deck  and  ten  long  niners  above,  after  the 
dimensions  of  La  Terpsichore,  previously  examined  by  Paul  Jones  in 
Hampton  Roads,  through  the  favor  of  the  "Sailor  Prince  of  France," 
Louis  Philippe  Joseph,  Duke  de  Chartres.  She  was  to  have  been  named 
the  Independence,  but,  in  honor  of  our  coalition  with  France,  the  reigning 
sensation,  she  was  named  the  Alliance.  She  set  sail  for  France  with 
Lafayette  on  board,  and  became  a  part  of  the  squadron  placed  at  the  dis- 
posal of  Paul  Jones  by  the  French.  On  this  remarkable  cruise,  which 
succeeded  in  so  thoroughly  alarming  the  English  coast,  the  Alliance 
would  have  played  a  close  second  to  the  flagship,  the  Bon  Homme  Richard, 
had  not  her  French  captain  been  disloyal. 

The  "unconquered  and  unstricken"  flag  which  waved  defiantly  as  the 

237 


238  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

Paul  Jones's  celebrated  engagement  off  Flamborough  Head, 
when  the  Bon  Homme  Richard  and  Serapis  each  shared  in  the 
mighty  fight.  Drink  of  the  crystal  Captain's  Well,  and 
thank  valiant  Captain  Valentine  Bagley  for  fulfilling  his 
vow  to  dig  a  wayside  well  for  the  refreshment  of  wanderers, 
should  he  be  delivered  from  the  tortures  of  thirst  suffered 
when  shipwrecked.  The  pretty  hamlet  of  Pleasant  Valley 
clings  to  bygone  English  customs.  Every  year  are  seen 
bonfires  on  the  hills  about  the  place  proclaiming  the  fifth 
of  November  as  the  anniversary  of  "gunpowder,  treason 
and  plot,"  which  so  sadly  disturbed  the  reign  of  James 
I.  Guy  Fawkes's  last  grotesque  procession  in  Newburyport 
paraded  in  1774,  "the  principal  cause  of  its  discontinuance 
being  an  unwillingness  to  displease  the  French,  whose  assis- 
tance was  deemed  so  advantageous  in  the  Revolution." 

In  1660,  the  startled  neighbors  saw  Goodman  Macy  set- 
ting sail  for  Nantucket  with  wife  and  children  in  an  open 
boat,  to  escape  an  uncharitable  fine  and  "admonishment  by 
the  governor,  because  he  had  entertained  Quakers"  during 
a  heavy  rain.  When  the  Colony  became  more  tolerant, 
many  of  this  peaceful  sect  dwelt  here.  You  might  have 
seen  Whittier  wending  his  way  to  sit  in  silence  at  the  Friends' 
Meeting,  or  seated  on  a  barrel  in  the  grocery  store  enjoying 
a  political  crack;  or  in  Mrs.  Spofford's  drawing-room  in  dis- 
cussion with  Judge  Black,  Attorney-General  under  Bu- 
chanan ;  at  times  their  political  issues  boiled  over  so  that 

Bon  Homme  Richard  sank,  was  made  for  Paul  Jones  by  Mary  Langdon 
and  other  girls  of  Portsmouth  at  a  quilting-bee  with  strips  from  their 
best  silk  gowns;  the  thirteen  white  stars  in  the  "New  Constellation" 
were  cut  from  the  bridal  dress  of  Mary  Seavey.  "This  was  the  first  edi- 
tion of  the  Stars  and  Stripes  to  be  saluted  by  the  guns  of  a  European 
naval  power."  It  was  an  extraordinary  sea-battle,  with  Commodore 
Jones  and  Captain  Richard  Pearson  of  the  British  navy  as  the  heroes.  It 
has  been  depicted  in  graphic  detail  by  Augustus  C.  Buell  in  the  history  of 
Paul  Jones,  Founder  of  the  American  Navy  (Charles  Scribner's  Sons). 


Amesbury 


239 


their  hostess  could  scarcely  separate  them.  Occasionally, 
on  purchasing  some  delicacy  in  Newburyport,  the  shop- 
keeper would  say:  "There's  no  charge  to  Mr.  Whittier,  sir." 


The  Friends'. Meeting-House,  Amesbury,  where  Whittier  worshipped. 
"Later  we  strolled  forth  into  the  village  street  as  far  as  the  Friends'  Meet- 
ing-house, and  sat  down  upon  the  steps  while  Whittier  told  us  something  of 
his  neighbors.  He  himself  had  planted  the  trees  about  the  church.  He  spoke 
very  earnestly  about  the  worship  of  the  Friends.  He  loved  the  old  custom  of 
silting  in  silence,  and  hoped  they  would  not  stray  into  habits  of  much  speak- 
ing." On  an  autumn  visit  to  Whittier.  ANNIE  FIELDS. 

He  was  constantly  planning  aid  for  the  freedmen.  Wishing 
to  obtain  a  contribution  from  his  own  town,  he  ingeniously 
suggested  that  the  carriage-makers  should  each  contribute 
some  part  of  a  carriage,  which,  complete,  sold  for  two  hun- 


240  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

dred  dollars,  Amesbury's  expected  contribution.  One  un- 
consciously associates  Amesbury  with  the  reposeful  Quaker 
life  and  forgets  the  town's  many  manufactories.  The  ma- 
jority are  devoted  to  the  carriage  industry,  founded  by  the 
Honorable  Jacob  R.  Huntington.  The  first  bank-bills  in 
the  United  States  were  printed  here. 


"From  the  green  Amesbury  hill 

I  see  thy  home,  set  like  an  eagle's  nest 
Among  Deer  Island's  immemorial  pines, 
Crowning  the  crag  on  which  the  sunset  breaks 
Its  last  red  arrow." 

Inscribed  To  Harriet  Prescott  Spofford  by  WHITTIER. 

Picturesque  Salisbury  Point  builds  dories  all  along  shore. 
A  city  girl  returning  to  her  great-grandfather's  homestead 
was  received  with  the  refreshing  open  heart  of  country  cus- 
tom. Leaning  over  the  fence  of  a  rambling,  old-fashioned 


Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

garden,  she  begged  some  sweet-peas.  "Why,  that's  all  we 
planted  them  for,"  exclaimed  the  neighbor,  with  a  right 
good  will;  "won't  you  come  in  and  have  a  bite  with  us? 
We'd  be  tickled  to  death  to  have  you."  She  accepted  the 
cordial  invitation  and  enjoyed  heartily  the  "biled  dish" 
which  all  true  New  Englanders  are  "real  sot  on"  when  it 
comes  to  eating. 

Prehistoric  evidence  tells  us  that  in  Merrimac,  Amesbury, 
and  Salisbury  the  savage  held  high  carnival  on  these  cele- 
brated fishing  grounds,  and  that  Merrimack  River  saw 
curious  aboriginal  dances  on  the  visits  of  Great  Chief  Passa- 
conaway.  The  Colonists  did  not  encounter  many  Indians 
during  the  first  years  of  settlement,  though  traces  of  them 
are  plainly  visible  in  the  huge  heaps  of  clam-shells  and  the 
well-trodden  trail  on  the  borders  of  the  marsh  between 
Salisbury  and  Hampton.  Of  these  "plantations"  of  1638, 
near  the  Powow,  Salisbury  was  the  earliest,  as  is  testified 
in  her  ancient  burying-ground  "where  the  rude  forefathers 
of  the  hamlet  sleep." 


A  TENT  ON  THE  BEACH 

"...     escaped  awhile 

From  cares  that  wear  the  life  away, 
To  eat  the  lotus  of  the  Nile 

And  drink  the  poppies  of  Cathay, — 
To  fling  their  loads  of  custom  down, 
Like  drif tweed  .  .  ." 

WHITTIER. 

OUR  last  well-trodden  path  farthest  north  strikes  the  sea 
where  the  waves  shout  "Welcome  home!"  to  Hampton 
River;  there  it  ebbs  and  flows,  covering  and  uncovering 
Rivermouth  Rocks'  quivering  fringe  of  moss.  Advancing 
thither,  you  cross  the  boundary  line  of  the  Granite  State. 
Plaistow  and  Newton  possess  rural  charms;  low,  inviting 
bars  wait  to  be  let  down  for  patient  cows  where  once  crackled 
high  bush  wolf-barriers ;  huckleberries  must  have  been  ever 
abundant,  otherwise  the  Indians  would  not  have  named 
this  lake  Attitash,  signifying  a  huckleberry.  Re-entering 
the  Old  Bay  State  at  Amesbury,  travelling  on  through  a 
charming  corner  of  Seabrook, — emptying  many  brooks  into 
the  sea, — on  past  the  Newburyport-Hampton  crossroads  at 
Smithtown,  through  an  odd,  forlorn  hamlet  settled  by  island 
fishers  a  century  ago,  you  finally  discover  that  witching 
peninsula  where  Whittier,  Fields,  and  Bayard  Taylor,  in 
"poetical  picnic,"  pitched  their  white  tent  on  the  beach. 
Landward  the  calm  blues  and  purples  of  Hampton  River; 
nor 'east  the  yellow-white  sands  gleam  under  a  glowing 
curve  of  blue  water  quite  to  the  Boar's  feet  where  the  foam 
leaps.  To  south'ard  as  well,  an  opalescent  surf  pounds 
ceaselessly,  as  if  it  were  Neptune's  cannon  threatening  this 
amicable  Literary  Brigade,  then,  relenting,  it  softly  floods 
all  the  long,  shimmering,  unbroken  reach  of  sounding  sea- 

243 


244  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

beach  on  Salisbury  foreside,  even  to  the  port  of  Newbury, 
whose  steeples  rise  above  the  Merrimack's  mouth. 

To  the  east,  Celia  Thaxter's  charmed  isles  "go  to  sea"  in 
fine  weather  and  "come  ashore"  on  the  translucent  days 
which  herald  the  storm.  One  boisterous  evening — which 
the  adventurous  trio  must  have  anticipated,  if,  like  our 
Princess  of  John  Smith's  Isles,  they  stooped  to  consult  the 
"poor  man's  weather  glass,"  that  wise,  scarlet  pimpernel, 
already  closing  its  petals  under  the  clear  sky  to  shield  its 
"  golden  heart. "  against  the  coming  storm — they  watched  the 
grisly  Boar's  Head  don  its  purple-black  mantle  and  the  red 
star  flash  out  on  White  Isle  of  the  Shoals,  dark  billows  roll- 
ing heavily  in  on  the  bar.  Presently,  by  a  kerosene  light, 
the  poet  unrolls  his  manuscript  and  reads  a  tragic  tale  of 
Hampton  folk, — The  Wreck  of  Rivermouth, — of  a  vessel  be- 
lieved to  have  been  cursed  by  Goody  Cole,  the  witch  of 
Hampton,  going  down  on  Ri vermouth  Rocks  with  all  on 
board. 

To-day,  from  a  fine  mile-long  bridge  across  the  Hampton, 
the  accidental  fisherman,  lazily  hooking  flounders,  involun- 
tarily observes  afar  the  mowers  laying  low  swaths  of  salted 
savory  grass.  A  distant  hayrick,  piled  with  a  harvest  from 
fresh  meadows,  placidly  trundles  Seabrook-ward,  piercing 
the  background  of  oaks ;  at  mid-day  distant  laughter  from 
a  merry  beach  audience  draws  him  to  see  the  surf -bathers 
dive  through  the  crest  of  a  grand  ninth  wave  T ;  it  plunges 
as  if  it  might  level  the  sand-dune,  but  Nature's  barrier  of 
coarse  blades  and  roots  of  grass  hinders  the  sea's  progress ; 
a  line  of  ragged  shells,  bits  of  phosphorescent  spar,  and 
crimson  dulse,  dried  to  a  dull  brown,  outlines  high-water 
mark. 

Hampton  Beach,  extending  north  and  south  of  the  Boar's 

1  Longfellow,  in  his  sonnet  to  Milton,  compares  the  poet's  majestic 
cadence  to  a  ninth  wave's  mighty  undulations. 


T3      •* 

§   O 


246  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

Head,  has  been  a  summer  play -ground  for  a  century;  in- 
land folk  are  always  starved  for  just  one  whiff  of  the  sea. 
Delightful  opportunities  are  offered  them  by  to-day's  rapid 
transit.  So  many  more  jolly  youngsters  can  be  tucked 
into  a  private  car  than  when,  in  the  good,  slow  times,  we 
children  climbed  helter-skelter  at  sunrise  into  the  big  three- 
seated  wagon  in  company  with  a  "  hunkin  '  "  bushel-basket 
of  pies,  raised  doughnuts,  spiced  cake,  cookies,  and  bottled 
coffee.  A  laughable  mishap  it  was  to  find  our  cream 
churned  to  butter  from  jolting  on  a  short-cut  through  the 
blackberry  pasture  and  over  the  beach  stones.  Not  one 
child  will  forget  that  enchanting  sound  of  rubbing  pebbles 
drawn  by  the  ebbing  tide;  or  the  white  curl  of  green, 
cavern-like  breakers  tumbling  over  one  another  on  a  hot- 
sand  floor;  such  a  jolly  place  to  build  castles,  by  and  by  to 
be  captured  and  swallowed  up  by  greedy  old  ocean ! 

On  the  "Beach  Road"  to  Hampton,  approaching  the 
"Great  Elm,"  is  Great  Ox  Common,  where  colonial  cows 
were  allowed  to  go  "a  shack."  This  land  was  held  in  com- 
mon by  the  pioneers,  who  followed  Father  Bachiler  r  from 
"  Ould  "  Newbury  to  Hampton  or  Winnicunnet  (beautiful 
place  of  pines),  never  heeding  Captain  John  Mason's  protest 
against  their  intruding  on  his  grand  American  domain  in 
our  present  New  Hampshire. 

1  The  Rev.  Stephen  Bachiler,  a  gifted  preacher,  "was  a  man  of  de- 
voted service,  in  spite  of  the  dishonor  with  which  he  afterward  let  his 
name  be  shadowed"  ;  he  left  Hampton,  returning  to  England  and  the 
favor  of  Cromwell,  "because  his  church  disapproved  of  his  marriage  late 
in  life  to  a  woman  whom  they  regarded  as  disreputable." 


SEABROOK  (VILLAGE  OF  ANCIENT  HAMPTON) 

LET  us  follow  the  pioneers  through  Seabrook,  where  the 
Bound-House  was  built  in  1636  by  Richard  Dummer  and 
John  Spencer  of  Newbury,  "at  the  expence  of  the  colony," 
its  architect  being  Nicholas  Easton,  who  built  the  first 
English  house  in  Newport.  From  Amesbury  it  is  a  wild 
and  lovely  way  to  Seabrook;  along  the  roadside  the  wild 
rose  and  purple  aster  ever  hold  a  deeper  tinge  because  of 
salt  air  sifted  through  pines.  Just  at  this  earliest  Bound 
Rock,  between  Massachusetts  and  New  Hampshire,  Wash- 
ington halted  in  his  tour  of  1798  and  a  ceremonious  fare- 
well took  place.  Washington  writes : 

Here  I  took  leave  of  Mr.  Dalton  [of  Newburyport] ,  also  of 
General  Titcomb,  who  had  met  me  on  the  line  between  Middle- 
sex and  Essex  Counties,  corps  of  light-horse  and  many  officers: 
and  was  received  by  the  President  of  the  State  of  New  Hamp- 
shire [Governor  Sullivan],  Messrs.  Langdon  and  Wingate  of 
the  Senate. 

At  Seabrook's  Quaker  meeting-house  (1701)  the  "broad- 
brims" assembled  from  Hampton,  Salisbury,  and  Amesbury. 
Friends  were  allowed  to  worship  in  peace  after  thirteen 
had  been  admonished  by  Salisbury  Court,  "  for  ye  breach  of 
law  called  '  Quaker  Meeting.' '  At  a  quarterly  meeting  "ye 
wearing  of  Wigges  was  Discorsed  and  concluded — ye  wear- 
ing of  extravagant  Superfluous  Wigges  Is  all  to  Gather 
Contrary  to  truth."  When  the  Quakers  tried  to  convince 
the  Indians,  telling  them  that  they  had  a  light  within, 
which  was  a  sufficient  guide,  the  Indians  replied:  "  We  have 
long  looked  within  and  find  it  very  dark." 

The  names  of  Seabrook's  early  settlers  are  familiar  wher- 
ever there  is  a  Society  of  Friends— Christopher  Hussey,  the 

247 


248  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

Felches,  Joseph  Dow,  Thomas  Philbrick,  and  the  Goves. 
Seabrook  was  granted  in  1768  to  Jonathan  Weare  and 
others.  Nathaniel  Weare  pleaded  the  cause  of  the  Colonies 
in  England  against  Edward  Cranfield,  Royal  Governor. 
Two  homesteads  of  Seabrook  are  the  Philbrick  and  Peter 
Weare  houses,  and  the  Brown  Library  is  most  attractive. 

HAMPTON    FALLS 

Hampton  Falls,  whose  falls,  like  the  intermittent 
springs  of  Germany,  cannot  be  depended  upon,  was  in  1770 
the  leading  manufacturing  town  in  the  State.  On  the 
Green  is  the  President  (Governor)  Mesech  Weare  monu- 
ment, whose  homestead  is  not  far  distant.  The  Wells- 
wood  inn  (1808)  replaced  the  George  Tavern,  and  welcomed 
New  Hampshire's  worthies  travelling  by  "flying  stage"  on 
the  five  days'  trip  between  Portsmouth  and  Boston.  Its 
hall  was  the  arena  for  one  of  Daniel  Webster's  marvellous 
pleas. 

What  a  commotion  at  "The  George"  on  December  13, 
1774,  when  a  mounted  messenger  clattered  by  the  tavern 
toward  Portsmouth!  Mutterings  of  war  had  reached  the 
Hamptons,  and  what  next  ?  Did  any  one  in  the  village  recog- 
nize Paul  Revere,  already  many  times  the  bearer  of  secret 
Patriot  dispatches  ?  Could  any  one  guess  the  portent  of  his 
news  from  Boston  to  the  Portsmouth  Committee  of  Safety, 
that  England  had  forbidden  the  entrance  of  gunpowder, 
and  the  threatening  fact  that  a  large  garrison  had  already 
left  England  to  fortify  Fort  William  and  Mary  in  Ports- 
mouth Harbor?  At  once,  four  hundred  Sons  of  Liberty  of 
Portsmouth,  Newcastle  and  Rye,  under  Sullivan,1  Picker- 
ing and  Langdon  besieged  the  fort,  the  King's  colors  were 
hauled  down,  the  barrels  of  gunpowder  carried  in  gondolas. 
to  Durham  and  concealed  under  the  meeting-house  pulpit, 

1  Military  Services  of  General  Sullivan,  by  Col.  T.  C.  Amory. 


Hampton  Falls 


249 


till  drawn  to  Cambridge  on  old  John  Demerett's  ox-cart  to 
assist  at  Bunker  Hill. 

A  few  summers  ago,  passing  by  the  garden  of  "  Elmfield," 
the  attractive  homestead  of  the  Wells  family,1  one  might 
have  caught  a  glimpse  of  the  poet  Whittier  on  a  rustic  seat 


The  Wells  Homestead,  "Elmfield,"  Hampton  Falls,  N.  H. 

under  the  elm  branches,  surrounded  by  children,  or  above 
on  the  grape-vined  balcony  with  his  beloved  friends.  In 
his  room  adjoining  stands  the  table  on  which  he  wrote  To 
Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  on  His  Birthday  (1892)  2: 

1  Home  of  Miss  Sarah  A.  Gove,  whom  Whittier  visited. 

2  Century  Magaziiw  for  September,  1892. 


250  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

"  How  few  of  all  have  passed,  as  thou  and  I, 
So  many  milestones  by ! " 

Less  than  one  white  mile-stone  more  and  Whittier  him- 
self here  passed  over  the  Borderland.  How  he  had  loved 
the  beautiful  prospect  across  meadows  and  tide-land  to  the 
sand-spit  at  the  mouth  of  Hampton  River !  As  he  watched 
the  cirrus  clouds  open  and  shut  above  yonder  "gloomerin' 
meadows"  many  times  did  he  recall  a  favorite  poem,1  open- 
ing: 

"De  massa  ob  de  sheepfol', 

Dat  guards  de  sheepfol'  bin, 
Look  out  in  de  gloomerin'  meadows 

Whar  de  long  night  rain  begin — 
So  he  call  to  de  hirelin'  shepa'd, 

'Is  my  sheep,  is  dey  all  come  in?'" 

HAMPTON 

Whittier  is  the  historian  in  verse  of  old  Hampton,  as  well 
as  the  legendary  poet  of  the  long,  beautiful  Merrimack 
River  valley  from  Nashua  to  the  sea.  His  How  the  Women 
went  from  Dover — the  wretched  journey  of  three  poor,  per- 
secuted Quakers,  whipped  at  the  cart-tail  through  Hampton 
to  Salisbury  town — stands  as  a  powerful  protest  against 
bigotry,  Puritan  or  any  other. 

In  the  Wreck  of  Rivermouth  is  introduced  Eunice  Cole, 
the  "mad  witch-wife,"  so  feared  in  Hampton  village  that 
when  she  died  they  buried  her  deep  down  in  the  marsh 
with  a  stake  through  her  body  and  a  horseshoe  attached,  to 
exorcise  the  evil  spirit.  A  powerful  superstition  was  this, 
which  could  controvert  even  for  a  time  such  wisdom  as 
Judge  Samuel  Sewall's. 

1  This  exquisite  poem  of  Mrs.  Sarah  McLean  P.  Greene  may  be  found 
in  Stedman's  Anthology. 


Hampton 


251 


In  Hampton  is  a  "haunted  house,"  where  "strange  noises 
were  heard  in  the  rooms,  the  steps  and  the  rustling  dress 
of  a  woman  unseen  on  the  stairs."  I  The  servants  became 
so  terrified  that  the  Rev.  Mr.  Willet  of  Newburyport  was 
sent  for  to  pray  the  ghosts  away;  he  finally,  in  all  serious- 


Hampton  Marshes. 

ness,  locked  them  in  a  closet  and  departed.  This,  the  Gen- 
eral Moulton  house,  is  the  scene  of  that  dreary  poem,  The 
New  Wife  and  the  Old.2 

1  Quoted  from  a  letter  received  by  Whittier  from  a  lady  who  spent  a 
summer  at  the  Moulton  house. 

2  Mr.  Whittier  wrote  to  a  granddaughter  of  General  Moulton  that  this 
legend  of  the  rings  being  taken  from  the  fingers  of  the  new  wife  by  the  old, 
after  the  splendid  wedding  fete  was  over  had  been  related  to  him  a  good 
many  years  ago  by  an  elderly  lady. 


252  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

All  the  little  journey  through  Hampton  to  the  shore  is 
peculiarly  attractive ;  not  alone  at  mid-summer,  when  great 
shadowy  trees  and  old  ocean  plot  to  soothe  tired  mortals 
and  temper  burning  heat,  that  the  locusts  chatter  about, 
and  Hampton  marshes  dressed  in  tawny-yellow  contrast 
vividly  with  rich,  green  farming  lands,  sweeping  westward 
toward  Exeter;  but,  above  all,  in  autumn  you  find  a  superb 
color-study.  Now  the  marshes  flame  with  brilliant  coral- 
weed,  their  hay-stacks  set  on  low  stilts  appear  to  dance  on 
a  wide,  red-gold  carpet,  and  "the  white  sails  of  the  coasters 
glide  past  beyond  them  in  waters  below  the  horizon  "  as  you 
are  rushed  swiftly  on  by  electricity  or  steam. 

At  the  social  meeting  of  the  crossroads  at  Hampton,  the 
Toppan  mansion  retires  behind  protecting  elms  after  a 
season  of  splendor,  when  her  retinue  of  negro  servants 
rivalled  the  Moulton  household.  On  the  site  of  the  Leavitt 
Tavern  stands  the  hospitable  Whittier  house  (1818).  We 
next  turn  toward  Exeter,  the  ancient  seat  of  the  Governor 
of  New  Hampshire. 


EXETER,  1638 

THE  road  to  Exeter  is  one  long  green  vista  whether  you 
travel  thither  from  Hampton  or  from  Portsmouth.  The 
Rev.  John  Wheelwright  followed  the  latter  road,  when, 
after  his  curt  dismissal  by  the  Boston  Church,  he  chose  to 
take  possession  of  his  parcel  of  land  purchased  of  Wehano- 
wonmet,  Sagamore  of  Squamscot,  instead  of  accompanying 
his  sister-in-law,  ' '  the  sainted  Anne  Hutchinson, ' '  to  Rhode 
Island.  Sailing  in  John  Clark's  coaster  to  the  mouth  of  the 
Piscataqua,  he  proceeded  thence  overland,  and  founded  a 
town  on  the  frontier, — Exeter.  The  settlement's  only  pro- 
tection was  "  The  Old  Garrison"  of  squared  logs,  built  before 


"  Tfte  Old  Garrison,"  Exeter. 

1676,  whose  loop-holes  had  been  widened  into  windows.  A 
wing  was  added  in  1773  by  Brigadier-General  Peter  Gilman, 
in  order  to  provide  worthy  entertainment  for  Governor  John 

253 


254  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

Wentworth.  In  1796,  Daniel  Webster  boarded  here  while 
attending  Phillips  Exeter  Academy,  the  establishment  of 
which  was  a  red-letter  day  in  the  history  of  New  Hamp- 
shire. The  benign  countenance  of  Dr.  John  Phillips  has 
looked  down  upon  a  long  line  of  distinguished  graduates. 
Edward  Everett  and  Judge  Emery  were  among  "Dr.  Ab- 
bot's boys"  who  took  part  in  his  fiftieth  jubilee;  and,  as 
Daniel  Webster  paid  his  glowing  tribute,  many  remem- 
bered the  orator  as  "a  shy  boy,  who  could  not  make  a 
declamation."  "I  never  could  speak  before  the  school," 
said  Mr.  Webster.  Phillips  Academy  has  recently  acquired 
the  painting  of  the  Puritan  Girl  by  Martha  Hale. 

One  exciting  episode  in  Exeter's  history  was  the  "  Paper- 
Money  Riot."  The  Revolution  opened  in  New  Hampshire 
with  the  private  scheme  of  summarily  snatching  powder  and 
cannon  from  Fort  William  and  Mary;  Colonel  Nicholas 
Oilman,  Dr.  John  Giddinge,  and  General  Folsom  hastened 
to  Portsmouth  to  give  their  support.  Governor  Went- 
worth knew  nothing  of  the  affair  till  too  late.1 

The  most  interesting  of  Exeter's  homesteads  is  known  as 
the  Governor  Gilman  mansion  on  "Governor's  Lane,"  the 
home  of  both  Colonel  Daniel  Gilman  and  State  Treasurer 
Nicholas  Gilman,2  of  late  occupied  by  a  descendant,  Mr. 
John  T.  Perry ;  for  many  years  it  was  the  home  of  Colonel 
Peter  Chadwick.  Shortly,  it  is  to  become  the  headquarters 

1  Gideon  Lamson,  the  youngest  volunteer,  gives  the  following  account : 
"We  rode  into  Portsmouth  and  stopped  at  Major  Stoodley's  inn;   we  had 
coffee  about  sunrise.     Major  Stoodley  looked  queer  at  such  guests  with 
guns  and  bayonets.     Col    Hackett  with  fifty  or  sixty  foot  stopped  at  the 
hay-market.     The  inhabitants    looked    on    with  wonder.     At  nine  Col. 
Langdon  acquainted  Gen.  Folsom  with  the  success  of  the  enterprise  and 
that  Gen.  Sullivan  was  then  passing  up  the  Piscataqua  with  the  loaded 
boats  of  powder." — Bell's  History  of  Exeter. 

2  Other  long  familiar  names  in  Exeter  are  Judge  John  Dudley,  Judge 
Jeremiah  Smith,  Colonel  John   Rogers,   the  Leavitts,  Things,   Lyfords, 
Halls,  and  Hiltons. 


256  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

of  the  New  Hampshire  Society  of  the  Cincinnati.1  The 
deep  window-seats  hint  of  brick  walls  twenty-nine  inches 
thick  under  the  panelled  wainscoting,  and  Nathaniel  Ladd's 
huge  kitchen  fireplace  of  1723,  in  the  oldest  wing,  suggests  a 
barbecue.  Oilman  Park  is  one  of  the  most  picturesque 
bits  of  ground  in  New  Hampshire. 

The  Marquis  de  Chastellux  visited  Exeter  on  his  North 
American  travels, 

where  the  President  or  Governor  resides  [he  writes], 
rather  a  handsome  town,  a  sort  of  port;  vessels  of  seventy 
tons  can  come  up  and  others  as  large  as  five  hundred  tons 
are  built  here  and  floated  down  Exeter  (Squamscot)  River 
to  Piscataqua.  We  stopped  at  a  very  handsome  inn  kept 
by  Mr.  Ruspert,  which  we  quitted  at  half  past  two;  and 
though  we  rode  very  fast,  night  was  coming  on  before  we 
reached  Portsmouth.  We  passed  through  Greenland,  a  very 
populous  township  composed  of  well  built  houses.  Cattle 
here  are  abundant,  but  not  so  handsome  as  in  Connecticut. 
They  are  dispersed  over  fine  meadows,  and  it  is  a  beautiful 
sight  to  see  them  collected  near  their  hovels  in  the  evening. 
This  country  presents  the  picture  of  Abundance  and  Hap- 
piness. The  road  from.  Greenland  to  Portsmouth  is  wide 
and  beautiful.  I  alighted  at  Mr.  Brooster's,  where  I  was 
well  lodged;  he  seemed  much  attached  to  his  country. 

Every  one  will  agree  with  this  agreeable  French  nobleman 
in  his  enthusiasm  over  the  wonderful  beauty  of  Greenland's 
meadows,  and  delight  further  in  his  reminiscences  of  Ports- 
mouth, where  he  found  the  Comte  de  Vaudreuil  in  great 

1  The  membership  of  the  Society  of  the  Cincinnati  is  composed  of  the 
descendants  of  the  commissioned  officers  of  the  Revolutionary  Army. 
Washington,  Hamilton,  Knox,  Sullivan,  Cilley,  Oilman,  and  Steuben  were 
among  the  original  members.  Each  of  the  thirteen  original  States  has  a 
Society.  The  President  of  the  New  Hampshire  Society  is  Hon.  John  G. 
Oilman,  of  Exeter;  this  town  was  chosen  as  headquarters,  having  been 
the  political  Capitol  of  the  State  during  the  Revolution. 


Tea  at  Colonel  Langdon's 

confusion,  as  his  mizzen-mast  had  been  struck  by  lightning, 
penetrating  his  first  battery.  Returning  for  his  cloak,  the 
Marquis  describes  his  experiences  thus  in  part: 

I  happened  to  pass  by  the  meeting  and  had  the  curiosity 
to  enter,  where  I  remained  above  half  an  hour,  that  I  might 
not  interrupt  the  preacher  and  shew  my  respect  for  the 


The  Governor  Langdon  Mansion  flanked  with  guard-houses,  erected 
in  1784,  Pleasant  Street,  Portsmouth. 

assembly;  the  audience  were  not  numerous  on  account  of 
the  severe  cold,  but  I  saw  some  handsome  women,  elegantly 
dressed. 

After  dinner  we  went  to  drink  tea  with  Mr.  Langdon;  he 
has  been  a  Member  of  Congress  and  is  now  one  of  the  first 
people  in  the  country;  his  house  is  elegant  and  the  apart- 
ments admirably  wainscotted.  [The  beautiful  mansion 
with  its  guard-houses  is  admirably  preserved  to-day,  re- 
maining the  Langdon  residence.]  Mrs.  Langdon,  his  wife, 
is  young,  fair,  and  tolerably  handsome,  but  I  conversed  less 
with  her  than  with  her  husband,  in  whose  favor  I  was  preju- 


258  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

diced,  from  knowing  that  he  had  displayed  great  courage  at 
Burgoyne's  expedition.  For  repairing  to  the  council  cham- 
ber, and  perceiving  that  they  were  about  to  discuss  affairs 
of  little  consequence,  he  addressed  them  as  follows:  "Gen- 
tlemen, you  may  talk  as  long  as  you  please,  but  I  know  the 
enemy  is  on  our  frontiers,  and  that  I  am  going  to  take  my 
pistols,  and  mount  my  horse,  to  combat  with  my  fellow 
citizens."  The  greatest  part  of  the  members  followed  him 
and  joined  General  Gates  at  Saratoga.  .  .  .  On  leav- 
ing Colonel  Langdon's,  we  went  to  pay  a  visit  to  Colonel 
Wentworth,  who  is  respected  not  only  from  his  being  of  the 
same  family  with  Lord  Rockingham  [the  leader  of  the 
moderate  Whigs],  but  from  his  general  character  for  pro- 
bity and  talents.  [Colonel  Wentworth  then  had  charge  of 
the  naval  department  at  Portsmouth.] 


ANOTHER  PATH  TO  PORTSMOUTH 

ON  your  journey  from  Hampton  Beach  to  Strawberry 
Bank  (Portsmouth),  the  road  skirts  Little  Boar's  Head 
with  charming  summer  houses  fringed  by  rocks  and  pebble 
beaches  where  surf  plays  merrily.  Beyond  the  Farragut 
house  at  "Sandy  Beach"  (Rye)  is  the  lovely  church,  St. 
Andrew's  by  the  Sea.  Northward  stretches  Foss  Beach, 
Wallis  Sands,  and  on  yonder  Odiorne's  Point '  the  first  set- 
tlement in  the  State  was  made;  "the  Manor,"  or  Mason 
Hall,  built  for  Captain  John  Mason,  stood  a  little  north  of 
the  hillock  called  "Flake  Hill,"  from  the  fish-flakes  of  the 
settlers. 

Beyond  the  pleasant,  old-time  village  of  Rye  is  a  glimpse 
of  Newcastle  Heights  rising  eighty  feet  above  the  sea,  and 
the  "  New"  Wentworth.  The  Old  Wentworth  mansion  lies 
across  the  river  at  Little  Harbor;  it  is  a  most  delicious  ex- 
perience to  float  with  the  tide  down  Sagamore  Creek  to  this 
oddly  built  house  of  many  wings,  assorted  in  such  a  variety 
of  shapes  and  sizes  as  to  appear  "a  succession  of  after- 
thoughts" ;  its  history  is  more  romantic  than  any  other  of 
the  splendid  houses  standing  in  fine  old  maritime  Ports- 
mouth; the  much-talked-of  second  marriage  of  Governor 
Benning  Wentworth  took  place  here.  How  amazed  were 
the  guests  when  invited  to  adjourn  from  dinner  to  the  wed- 

1  Odiorne's  Point  is  a  mile  and  a  half  walk  from  Foye's  Corner.  Tra- 
dition says  that  in  1605  a  French  vessel  touched  at  this  point;  here 
Champlain  met  Indians  to  whom  he  made  presents  of  knives,  etc.  "The 
Indians,  with  charcoal,  marked  off  the  coast  as  far  as  they  knew  it,  de- 
lineating the  entrance  of  the  Merrimack  impeded  by  sand  bars,  making 
the  first  disclosure  of  the  existence  of  that  river." — Brewster's  Rambles 
about  Portsmouth. 

259 


260  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

ding  of  the  Governor  with  Martha  Hilton,  his  young  and 
pretty  housemaid !     She  was,  however,  of  excellent  family. 

The  mansion  and  three  hundred  acres  were  purchased  by 
Jacob  Sheaf e  for  his  daughter  Nancy,  the  wife  of  Charles 


St.  Andrew's  by  the  Sea. 

Gushing  J;  a  grandchild  of  the  house  says:  "No  one  valued 
ancestral  possessions  in  those  days  and  we  rummaged  in  the 
garret  to  our  heart's  content.  We  were  allowed  to  dress 
our  dolls  and  ourselves  from  the  contents  of  the  hair-trunks : 
cobweb  laces,  exquisite  brocades,  high-heeled  satin  slippers, 

1  Miss  Anne  Gushing,  as  the  daughter  of  the  only  son,  inherited  the 
Old  Wentworth  mansion,  afterwards  purchased  by  J.  Templeton  Coolidge, 
Jr- 


The  Old  Wentworth 


261 


ivory  and  sandal- wood  fans,  and  to  play  '  house '  in  the  lofty 
council  chamber.  Some  one  of  us  would  impersonate  the 
stately  Lady  Wentworth  Waldron,  wife  of  the  Secretary  of 
State,  and  play  with  haughty  air  on  the  fine,  old  spinet,  and 
— it  must  be  confessed — we  mischievously  touched  up  the 
Copleys  with  fence  paint!  The  buffet  in  the  corner  of  the 


1 'tie  Governor  Benning  Wentworth  Mansion  of  1750,  Portsmouth,  N.  H. 
The  Country  House  of  J.  Templeton  Coolidge,  Jr. 

billiard-room  held  the  toy  tea-set ;  in  fear  of  seeing  a  ghost 
we  girls  often  peered  cautiously  into  one  of  the  card-rooms 
adjoining,  and  into  the  stable  underneath  with  accommo- 
dations for  twenty  horses.  Between  the  council  chamber 
and  parlor,  where  the  marriage  certificate  of  the  Governor 
and  Martha  Hilton  hung  on  the  velvet  picture  paper,  was 
our  favorite  room,  a  small  hall  stacked  with  guns  and  a 
heavy  outer  door  with  an  immense  lock,  'to  keep  out  the 


262  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

Indians '  said  our  boy  cousins ;  they  loved  to  stand  on  the 
little  platform  whence  three  steps  led  down  to  the  council 
chamber,  and  give  the  command  to  imaginary  soldiers  in 
imitation  of  their  hero,  General  Washington,  who  often 
stood  there  too.  But  little  hands  did  not  accomplish  more 
mischief  than  some  conscientious  soul,  unconsciously  an 
iconoclast,  who  cleaned  the  cupboards  so  thoroughly  that 
wheelbarrow-loads  of  priceless  letters  and  documents  were 
set  floating — whither?  " 

From  Sunset  Rock  on  the  Little  Harbor  Road  of  lofty 
singing  pines,  is  a  glorious  prospect  to  Agamenticus, — 
sweet,  green  fields,  a  broad  blue  inlet  encircling  Marston's 
Island,  the  South  Mill  Pond,  and  the  old  town  lying  be- 
tween. Portsmouth's  long  celebrated  air  of  repose  is  some- 
what on  the  wane,  and  the  grass  is  not  now  "cut  in  the 
streets"  as  of  yore  on  great  occasions.  Modern  improve- 
ment has  lessened  the  unique  quality  of  her  charms,  yet  she 
enchains  us  still. 

Across  Sagamore  Creek  on  Wentworth  Road  stands  the 
Sheafe  country  house,  kin  to  the  Old  Wentworth.  On 
many  a  summer  day  a  cavalcade  of  Boston  cousins  l  rode 
out  from  Portsmouth  over  Lafayette  Road,  then  turning 
into  the  private  road  with  three  gates  which  crossed  the  five 
hundred  acres  of  the  Sheafe  estate,  they  snatched  a  hasty 
luncheon  from  the  sideboard,  walked  down  to  the  floating 

1  The  Cushings,  Quincys,  Bradstreets,  Cottons,  and  Sheafes.  Sheafe 
Street,  Boston,  was  named  for  this  family.  The  portraits  of  Jacob  Sheafe 
and  of  Miss  Ann  Husk  Sheafe  hang  in  the  Portsmouth  Athenaeum.  The 
famous  Gushing  homestead  on  Belle  House  Neck,  Scituate,  was  burned. 
Judge  Charles  Gushing  lived  at  the  corner  of  Walnut  and  Beacon  streets 
on  land  which  he  purchased  from  Copley.  He  built  a  house  in  the  garden 
tor  his  daughter  Lucy,  who  married  Henry  Sheafe.  The  Honorable 
William  Gushing  stayed  much  at  both  houses,  driving  over  in  his  coach 
from  Washington,  where  he  filled  the  office  of  Chief -Justice  by  President 
Washington's  appointment,  though  he  would  not  accept  the  title. 


Old  Kittery  on  the  Piscataqua  263 

wharf,  and  sailed  out  to  the  "Shoals"  for  a  chowder  party. 
During  the  week's  visit  of  Louis  Philippe  and  his  suite,  it  is 
said  that  at  a  banquet  Lady  Sheafe  sweetly  shook  her  head 
at  the  King,  lest  he  cut  the  pineapple  before  him,  then  used 
only  for  ornament,  so  rare  was  the  fruit. 

Strolling  from  the  Sheafe  house  by  the  longest  way  to 
Portsmouth,  your  path  in  Newcastle  is  constantly  beset 
-by  tempting  water  pictures.  Beyond  the  Wentworth  is 
the  Barrett  Wendell  house.  Close  to  crumbling  Walbach's 
tower  on  Fort  Point,  continuously  fortified  since  1623,  is 
Fort  Constitution. 

Across  the  roadstead  is  Gerrish  Island,  and  on 
Cutts  Island  is  the  lonely  grave  of  Sir  Francis  Cham- 
pernowne,  the  councillor '  of  Piscataqua  (Kittery,  Me.), 
commissioned  by  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges,  who  learned  of 
the  beauty  of  the  coast  from  his  friend,  Captain  John  Smith. 
In  Kittery,  on  the  old  path  to  Gorgeana  [York],  the  first 
city  of  America,  stands  the  Sir  William  Pepperell  Mansion, 
weird,  weather  beaten,  haunted  by  the  air  of  mystery,  so 
often  enveloping  old  houses  exposed  to  salt  gales.  Sir 
William  built  the  "Sparhawke2  house"  for  his  daughter,  at 
the  "Top  of  the  Point,"  in  1742.  Ships  were  built  in  Gerish 
field  and  in  front  of  the  Decatur  house.  At  Follet's  wharf 
on  the  point  [now  Mrs.  Decatur's  wharf]  Washington  landed 
when  he  arrived  to  spend  a  few  hours  in  Kittery.  A  few 
miles  from  Kittery  the  green  slopes  of  Eliot  touch  the 
Piscataqua;  under  her  glorious  pines,  wide-spreading,  the 
Greenacre  school  holds  summer  session. 

The  narrow  roads  of  Newcastle  turn  quaintly  between 
sunny  cottages  grouped  closely,  somewhat  like  a  foreign 

1  The  councillors  of  Agamenticus  were  William  Gorges,  Godfrey,  and 
Hook;   of  Saco,  Vines  and  Benython,  and  Henry  Joslyn  of  Black  Point 
and  Scarboro". 

2  Old  neighbors  are  the  Cutts  house,  the  Gerish  house  on  Gerish  Lane, 
and  the  Bray  house  of  1660. 


264  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

seaport;  a  few  quick-witted  old  weather-prophets  in  oil- 
skins are  yet  on  "deck."  Reluctantly  you  leave  the 
charming,  breezy  town  to  walk  over  the  picturesque  "three 
bridges,"  paying  toll  for  the  privilege.  Below  rock-bound 
Kittery  Point  are  swirling  Narrows,  and  the  danger  point 


The  Sir  William  Pepper  ell  House  of  1729,  Kittery,  Me. 

called  by  a  name  not  intended  for  ears  polite;  the  Navy 
Yard,  with  war- vessels  "in  dock,"  stands  on  the  old  Fer- 
nald's  Island ;  the  first  frigate,  the  Raleigh,  was  built  here. 
Crossing  "Goat's"  and  Shapley's  islands,  which  were 
bought  for  "  2  hogsheads  of  Tobago  rum,"  and  Frame  Point, 
or  "Captain  Salter's  Island,"  you  enter  Water  Street. 
Fields  of  wild  strawberries  extended  from  the  "  Great 
House"  back  over  Church  Hill;  one  garrison  house  stood 


Portsmouth  265 

here  by  Jacob  Sheaf e's  wharf,  another  near  the  Alexander 
Ladd  house  on  Market  Street.  Brush  away  tall  grass  from 
a  lichened  stone  in  the  wind-swept  Point  of  Graves,  and 
decipher  1684;  the  low- walled  plot  is,  however,  fifteen  years 
older. 

On  one  of  these  grass-grown  wharves  at  midnight  the 
Bad  Boy  Tom  Bailey  dropped  a  match  on  the  train  of  pow- 
der laid  by  the  "Centipedes,"  to  fire  the  "old  sogers,"  I  or 
Bailey's  battery.  Boom!  Boom!  Portsmouth  awoke 
startled,  frightened,  mystified;  the  superstitious  believed 
that  a  long-looked-for  phantom  ship  had  arrived.  "The 
Oldest  Inhabitant  refused  to  go  to  bed  on  any  terms,  but 
persisted  in  sitting  up  all  night,  with  his  hat  and  mittens 
on,"  says  Thomas  Bailey  Aldrich  in  reminiscent  humor. 

Not  far  from  the  river,  on  Hunking  Street,  is  the  birth- 
place of  Tobias  Lear,2  where  Washington  visited  him  in 
1789.  Washington  once  stayed  at  Staver's  Hotel  on  Court 
Street,3  which  was  but  twenty  feet  wide  when  the  Flying 
Stage  Coach  ran  from  "Staver's"  to  Boston.  Portsmouth 
and  the  adjoining  country  are  filled  with  legends,  and  a 
fortnight's  Rambles  with  Lewis  Brewster,  supplemented  by 
the  Portsmouth  Book  and  several  condensed  guide-books, 
will  not  exhaust  your  theme ;  best  of  all,  obtain  an  introduc- 
tion to  the  Oldest  Inhabitant. 

As  early  as  1603,  Martin  Pring,  in  quest  of  a  sassafras  tree 

1  Fifty  years  ago,  useless  twelve-pounders  and  swivels  of  privateers, 
each  with  a  cannon-ball  in  its  mouth,  served  as  ornamental  corner-posts 
on  the  streets  to  the  river. 

2  Some  valuable  correspondence  of  Tobias  Lear,  Washington's  private 
secretary,  including  letters  of  Washington,  Jefferson,  and  Madison,  is  now 
owned  by  a  Portsmouth  descendant  with  some  pieces  of  his  silver. 

3  The  house  No.  45  Court  Street  was  the  home  of  the  Bad  Boy,  whence 
he  descended  by  "a  few  yards  cut  from  Kitty  Collins's  clothes-line"  on 
the  night  before  the  glorious  Fourth  and  with  Pepper  Whitcomb  and  the 
other  boys  made  a  bonfire  of  the  skeleton  of  an  old  mail-coach  in  Market 
Square. 


266  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

of  medicinal  virtue,  was  beguiled  up  the  river  as  far  as 
beautiful  Great  Bay  of  tidal  water,  where  five  rivers  enter,1 
forming,  with  the  bay,  the  fingers  and  palm  of  a  man's  hand, 
and  the  Piscataqua  the  wrist.  Had  not  the  explorers  been 
disappointed  in  their  quest  for  sassafras,  perchance  Pring 
might  have  been  irresistibly  drawn  to  make  a  settlement. 
Daring  pioneers  eventually  built  on  each  high  knoll  a  garrison 
in  order  to  have  the  widest  possible  outlook  for  the  subtle 
enemy.  In  spite  of  precaution,  this  pink  apple-blossom 
country,  loveliest  when  the  solitary  elm  unfurls  his  leafy 
umbrella  over  rolling  meadows,  was  desecrated  by  frightful 
Indian  massacre,  twelve  garrisons  on  Oyster  River  being 
fired  in  one  night,  and  the  families  killed  or  carried  captive 
to  Canada. 

1  The  beautiful  New  Hampshire  towns  of  Portsmouth,  Exeter,  Dover, 
and  Durham  are  united  by  water-ways  in  the  Great  Bay.  The  Squamscot 
flows  by  Exeter,  the  Piscataqua  by  Portsmouth,  and  the  Lampereel, 
Oyster,  Bellamy,  and  Cocheco  rivers  belong  to  "Ancient"  Dover. 


Old  Drew  Garrison,  on  the  Rounds  Farm, 
Spruce  Lane,  Dover. 


ALONG  THE  CHARLES 

"Enough  for  me,  I  'm  off.     And  fellows  all, 
Who  could  resist  the  Auburndalean  call 

To  go  a-foraging  ?     That 's  what  the  spring  's  for, 
What  bards  have  wits  and  bumblebees  have  wings  for." 

"  Romany  Signs."     BLISS  CARMAN. 

ALONG  the  banks  of  the  Charles  and  thereabouts  are  a  chain 
of  legendary  and  picturesque  parks.1  One  of  these  parks  is 
dedicated  to  the  Vikings,  and  Leif  Erickson,  the  Discoverer, 
standing  near  the  entrance  to  the  Fens,  shades  his  eyes  as  he 
gazes  intently  toward  Norumbega  Tower,  commemorating 
the  city  of  his  hopes,  which  he  dreamed  of  erecting  in  Vine- 
land. 

Leaving  the  river  for  the  nonce,  you  ride  over  the  splendid 
Beacon  Boulevard,  when  snow  flies  gay  with  color.  Near 
Coolidge's  Corner  in  Brookline  the  Boulevard  passes  through 
the  extensive  early  estates  of  the  Stearns  and  Coolidge 
families. 

Skirting  Corey  Hill,  whose  prospect,  according  to  an 
English  traveller,  surpasses  any  in  the  world,  the  lawns 
widen  into  gardens;  roads  branch  toward  Aspinwall  Hill, 
the  Brookline  Woodlands,  and  beautiful  ancestral  estates 
of  the  aristocratic  town  once  known  as  Muddy  Brook  Ham- 
let. You  look  down  with  delight  on  Chestnut  Hill  Reser- 
voir, which  an  early  poetess  would  describe  in  The  Garland 
of  Flowers  annual,  as  a  sapphire  set  in  emeralds.  This  lovely 
sheet  of  water  borders  the  Schlesinger  and  other  famous 
Brookline  estates. 

Newton  and  Brookline  are  two  of  the  most  beautiful 

1  These  belong  to  the  "public  open  spaces"  reserved  by  the  Metropoli- 
tan Park  Commission,  except  Norumbega  Park. 

267 


268  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

towns  in  the  Commonwealth.  At  the  end  of  the  Newton 
Boulevard  (the  Commonwealth  Avenue  extension)  the 
Charles  River  greets  you  once  more.  Above  the  "old 
Weston  Bridge"  of  low  arches  is  the  Charles  River  Recrea- 
tion Grounds  at  Riverside,  the  home  of  the  Newton  Boat 
Club  and  of  the  Boston  Canoe  Club  and  of  the  Boston  Ath- 
letic Association.  The  river  is  very  dear  to  the  habitants 
of  Auburndale  and  Wellesley,  and  no  part  of  the  Charles  is 
more  entrancing  than  that  between  Wellesley  and  Norum- 
bega  Tower.  South  is  the  romantic  pleasure  park  of 
Norumbega.  Cosmopolitan  in  its  attributes,  the  scene  is  a 
purely  American  one.  It  resembles  the  gardens  of  all 
countries ;  here  are  music  and  tables  for  refreshment,  "faire  " 
paths  enter  leafy  glades,  with  grazing  deer  and  elk ;  rustic 
arbors  hang  over  the  river;  that  refrain  from  Funiculi 
Funicula,  to  the  accompaniment  of  mandolin  and  guitar 
from  the  canoes,  our  aboriginal  gondola,  is  reminiscent  of 
Venice  by  moonlight ;  during  the  water-carnivals,  when  all 
water  craft  are  in  costume,  and  the  canoes  as  thick  as  lily- 
pads,  the  scene  on  the  river  has  been  compared  to  that  on 
the  English  Thames.  Drifting  down  In  the  Shadows  of  the 
Charles,  the  rhythm  of  your  paddle  chimes  with  the  beat  of 
the  song  of  Pauline  Johnson,  daughter  of  a  Mohawk  chief : 

"I  am  drifting  to  the  leeward, 
Where  the  current  runs  to  seaward, 

Soft  and  slow. 

Where  the  sleeping  river  grasses 
Brush  my  paddle  as  it  passes 

To  and  fro." 

Approaching  Norumbega  Tower  of  strange  import,  your 
imagination  turns  back  a  thousand  years;  tradition  says 
that  Thorwald,  son  of  Erik,  trod  this  river-path,  perhaps 
even  set  afloat  a  burning  ship — some  Viking's  funeral  pyre 


°*  rS 

S  O 


§ 

G 


h 


270  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

— on  the  bosom  of  the  Charles.  How  many  men  in  many 
ages  have  searched  for  the  lost  city  of  Norumbega!  that 
marvellous  city  sought  by  the  Christian  Knight, — a  city  of 


Norumbega  Tower. 
"  Far  in  the  Northern  land, 
By  the  wild  Baltic's  strand 
I  with  my  childish  hand 

Tamed  the  gerfalcon." — LONGFELLOW. 

towers  and  spires  and  gilded  domes,  rich  in  pearls  and 
precious  stones.  Professor  Eben  Norton  Horsford  has 
placed  at  the  foot  of  the  tower  the  Icelandic  blotsteinn,  or 


Beaver  Brook  Oaks  271 

"worship-stone";  he  traces  the  ruins  of  a  fort,  the  moat 
surrounding  the  ramparts,  and  up  Stony  Brook,  foundations 
of  a  hut  built  of  double  stone  walls  peculiar  to  Iceland. 

Homeward-bound  by  way  of  Waverley  and  Cambridge, 
you  ride  along  the  border  of  Weston,  before  1712  the 
"Farmers'  Precinct"  of  Watertown,  into  Waltham,  the 
"Middle  Precinct,"  named  for  Waltham  Abbey;  here 
Theodore  Lyman  created  one  of  the  handsomest  country- 
seats  in  New  England.  In  forest-clad  Prospect  Hill  Park, 
four  hundred  and  sixty  feet  above  the  sea,  rises  Big  Pros- 
pect's summit,  the  highest  point  in  the  Metropolitan  Park 
system  except  the  Blue  Hills  of  Milton;  across  the  smiling 
valley  between  is  its  twin  summit, — Little  Prospect.  On 
the  boundary  of  Waltham  and  Belmont  in  the  Beaver  Brook 
reservation,  springing  from  a  glacial  kame,  are  venerable 
white  oaks,  "the  finest  group  of  their  kind  in  the  United 
States."  They  are  sometimes  called  the  "  Waverley  Oaks," 
but  the  name  which  Lowell  loved,  "  Beaver  Brook  Oaks,"  is 
their  true  name.  Agassiz  estimated  the  age  of  one  of  the 
hollow  trees  as  one  thousand  years,  and  Lowell  counted  the 
rings  of  a  small  oak  cut  some  fifty  years  ago,  numbering 
seven  hundred  and  fifty.  North  of  Trapelo  Road,  at  the 
cascade,  Lowell  heard  the  "never-ceasing  burr"  of  the  little 
fulling  mill  on  Beaver  Brook: 

"Climbing  the  loose-piled  wall  that  hems 
The  road  along  the  mill-pond's  brink, 
From  'neath  the  arching  barberry-stems, 
My  footstep  scares  the  shy  chewink." 


THE  BAY-PATH 

BEFORE  visiting  the  Pilgrims'  land,  and  following  the 
Narraganset  trail,  let  us  glance  at  the  Bay- Path,  the  link 
between  the  Bay  Colony  and  the  Connecticut  Valley,  one  of 
two  celebrated  Old  Bay  trails,  the  other  being  designated 
as  the  "Old  Indian  Path,"  or  "  Plymouth  Path."  To  far- 
away pioneers  in  the  parishes  of  Agawam  (West  Spring- 
field) and  Feeding  Hills,  the  appearance  of  a  post-rider  over 
the  Bay-Path,  his  saddle-bags  bulging  with  news  of  home 
and  friends,  was  joyously  welcomed.  Their  representa- 
tives to  the  General  Court  travelled  over  the  path  to  the  Bay 
until  an  insignificant,  blazed  trail  became  the  "  King's  high- 
way," and,  after  the  Revolution,  the  "great  road." 

In  1808,  this  road's  nose  "was  put  out  of  joint"  by  the 
new  turnpike  between  Boston  and  Worcester;  its  charter, 
the  first  granted  in  the  State,  was  obtained  by  Captain  Levi 
Pease  of  Shrewsbury,  who  had  been  of  great  service  in 
carrying  private  dispatches  for  Lafayette  and  General 
Thomas  during  the  Revolution;  he  had  established  in  1783 
the  first  stage-coach  line  between  Boston  and  Hartford,  at 
ten  dollars  a  trip.  The  coach  left  at  the  ' '  Sign  of  the  Lamb, ' ' 
presently  the  line  became  so  profitable,  in  spite  of  doleful 
prophecy,  that  Captain  Pease,  driving  four-in-hand,  left  his 
own  Boston  inn,  where  St.  Paul's  Church  now  stands,  and 
stopped  the  first  night  at  the  Pease  Tavern  I  in  Shrewsbury, 
now  a  quaint  ornament  of  the  ' '  great  road. ' '  On  the  ' '  pike ' ' 
in  South  Shrewsbury  you  will  mark  the  Old  Arcade, 
another  noted  tavern. 

1  The  back  logs  of  this  tavern  were  drawn  by  a  horse  into  the  kitchen, 
and  rolled  over  into  the  fireplace. 

272 


Hemlock  Gorge,  Newton  Upper  Falls. 
"  There  's  nothing  like  a  bit  of  open  sky 
To  give  a  touch  of  poetry  to  pie." 


273 


274  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

This  "Worcester  pike,"  after  passing  through  Brookline, 
crosses  lovely  Hemlock  Gorge  in  view  of  tree-framed  Echo 
Bridge  at  Newton  Upper  Falls.  Beyond  Wellesley  Hills,  a 
mile  to  the  south,  is  Wellesley  College  on  Lake  Waban, 
with  the  most  charming  surroundings,  and  the  beautiful 
Italian  garden  of  the  Hunnewell  estate.  Beyond  Natick, — 
where  was  erected  the  first  Indian  church, — the  pike 
meets  the  Old  Connecticut  Path  near  rippling  Lake 
Cochituate,  and  runs  on  through  Danforth's  Plantation J 
(Framingham)  to  the  State  Muster  Field.2 

In  the  February  snows  of  1676,  one  Thomas  Eames 
was  returning  from  Boston  over  this  Old  Connecticut  Path 
with  ammunition  to  protect  his  family  from  the  Indians. 
Hearing  no  bad  news  from  Henry  Rice,  his  neighbor,  he 
travelled  hopefully  on,  only  to  find  smouldering  ruins  and 
silence  at  Mount  Wayte.  Six  of  his  family  had  perished  and 
the  children  taken  captive.  Three  Indians  were  executed 
for  the  massacre.  Netus,  the  leader,  was  killed  at  Marl- 
borough  (Okommakamesitt)  by  English  soldiers. 3 

The  heights  above  the  fording  place  on  sweet  Sudbury 
River  in  Framingham  is  known  as  Salem  End  since  witch- 

1  Danforth's  Plantation  and  Farms  was  largely  a  grant  to  Thomas 
Danforth,  Deputy-Governor,  Treasurer  of  Harvard  College,  President  of 
the  Province  of  Maine,  who  founded    Framingham,  naming  it  for  his. 
castled  home,  Framlingham. 

2  From    Framingham,    the    Old    Connecticut    Path    runs  southward 
through    South    Framingham    to    Hopkinton,    Grafton,    and    beyond   to 
Woodstock,  Conn.      (This  old  trail  from  the  Bay  came  through  Water- 
town,  Wayland,   and  Sudbury.)      In  the  east  part  of  Framingham   it 
passed  the  Rice  house  on  Rice  Hill,  where  the  manufacture  of  straw 
bonnets  in  the  United  States  was  begun  in  1800,  and  continued  for  fifty 
years  by  Mrs.  Mary  Eames  Rice. 

The  Bay  Path  diverged  from  the  Old  Connecticut  Path  at  Wayland, 
passing  through  Marlborough,  Worcester,  and  Brookfield,  straight  toward 
the  Connecticut  river. 

3  From  the  Address  at  the  Bi-Centennial  Anniversary  of  Framingham, 
by  C.  C.  Esty. 


The  King's  Highway  275 

craft  days,  as  it  was  a  "haven  of  refuge"  to  Susan  Cloyes, 
a  suspected  witch,  one  of  Rebecca  Nurse's  sisters,  who 
escaped  from  Ipswich  jail  with  her  family,  and  followed  the 
Old  Connecticut  Path  hither.  No  one  fails  to  note  the 
three  steeples  of  Framingham,  that  of  the  Baptist  Church 
being  after  Christopher  Wren.  The  "  Old  Red  House  "  is  an 
Eames  homestead.  The  fine  Josiah  Temple  place  is  now 
the  Framingham  Golf  Club.  Among  the  Historical  Society's 
unique  possessions  1  is  the  Sabbath  Diary  of  the  Rev.  John 
Swift,  the  earliest  authentic  records  of  Framingham. 

Southborough  parted  from  old  Marlborough  in  1727. 
The  first  town-meeting  was  held  at  the  house  of  Timothy 
Brigham,  which  stood  on  the  site  of  St.  Mark's  School. 
Some  odd  appellations  are  Handkerchief  and  Troublesome 
Meadows  and  Pancake  Brook. 

The  most  famous  homestead  on  the  King's  highway  in 
Worcester  County  is  that  of  General  Artemas  Ward,  the 
patriot,  of  whom  many  interesting  stories  are  related. 
When  commander-in-chief  of  the  Continental  Army,  General 
Ward  charges  his  rations  bill  broadly  against  "The  Contin- 
ent," showing  that  even  the  leaders  were  doubtful  as  to  the 
result  of  the  war ;  would  it  be  a  Republic,  a  Confederacy,  or 
what? 

The  heading  of  the  account  reads: 

The  Continent  to  the  Honb!e  Maj.  Gen!  Artemas  Ward  D^ 
To  Rations  for  himself  and  following  Sundry  Persons  be- 
longing to  the  Continental  Army. 

1  A  curious  broadside  with  three  galloping  horsemen,  one  carrying  a 
banner  inscribed  "Stop  Thief"  reminds  us  that  our  forefathers  had  no 
telegraph  and  "The  Framingham  Thief-Detecting  Society"  was  a  neces- 
sity. The  duty  of  its  "Band  of  Detectives"  and  officers  composed  of 
prominent  citizens,  with  Moses  Edgell  as  President,  was  "to  be  always 
furnished  with  the  means  of  making  immediate  pursuit,"  and  catch  the 
thief  before  he  could  escape  over  the  border  into  Providence.  This  is 
an  old  and  notable  society  in  Shrewsbury  still. 


276  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

Following  the  King's  highway  (the  Bay-Path)  from  the 
Ward  homestead  by  Quinsigamond  Lake  in  the  country 
of  the  Nipmucks,  you  enter  Quinsigamond — the  city  of 
Worcester — on  the  path  taken  by  Israel  Bissell  on  the  nine- 
teenth of  April,  1775,  to  carry  the  war-news  to  New  York. 
He  left  Boston  by  the  west  road,  as  the  British  stopped  the 


Home  of  Major-General  Artemas  Ward,  Shrewsbury;    built  in  172-,  mod- 
ernized, Ij8j.     Property  of  Artemas  Ward,  Esq..  of  New  York. 
The  original  hand-split  shingles  are  on  the  house. 

way  on  the  Providence  turnpike.  At  Worcester,  his  horse 
dropped  in  his  tracks.  Remounting,  he  rode  on  wings, 
southward  to  Brooklyn,  Connecticut.  Israel  Putnam  left  his 
plough  and  took  up  the  war-cry.  A  Worcester  post-rider  flew 
over  the  Bay- Path  to  Springfield,  and  another  to  Hartford ; 
the  entire  country  was  agitated  with  messengers,  militia,  and 
volunteers  hastening  to  the  seat  of  war  at  Cambridge. 


THE  FENS  AND  JAMAICA  PLAIN 

AT  the  entrance  to  the  Back  Bay  Fens  from  Boylston 
Street,  Boston,  the  beautiful  John  Boyle  O'Reilly  memorial 
is  an  interesting  study,  likewise  the  bridges  of  contrasting 
architecture.  The  haughty  arch  of  Boylston  Bridge  carries 
a  dignified  row  of  Lombardy  poplars ;  the  coquettish  charm 
of  the  low  five-arched  Agassiz  bridge,  half  concealed  under 
graceful  trailing  plants,  compels  even  the  most  casual  ac- 
quaintance to  "  cast  one  longing,  lingering  look  behind." 
Stony  Brook  bridge,  of  light  Italian  arches,  carries  the 
Fenway.  On  this  boulevard  is  Fenway  Court,  containing 
the  Isabella  Stewart  Gardner  Museum.  Its  incomparable 
works  of  art  are  placed  in  a  unique  environment  such  as 
may  not  be  seen  elsewhere  in  the  world.  The  Fens  is  also 
to  become  the  new  home  of  the  Boston  Museum  of  Fine  Arts. 
Speeding  along  Muddy  River  and  Jamaicaway,  the  border 
of  Leverett  Park,  the  first  enchanting  peep  at  sparkling 
water  announces  Jamaica  Pond,  sought  out  with  zest  in  the 
winter  season  by  sleighing  and  skating  parties. 

Winter  pleasures  at  "Pond  Plain"  (Jamaica  Plain)  did 
not  begin  until  after  the  passing  of  the  pioneer  period ;  those 
exacting  years  contained  no  play-days ;  the  only  sportsman 
for  sport's  sake  we  wot  of  was  Tom  Morton  of  Merry-Mount, 
who  found  hunting  wild  turkeys  and  rioting  about  a  May- 
pole in  our  New  English  Canaan  of  which  he  wrote,  quite  to 
his  mind,  and  it  took  Captain  Myles  Standish  and  all  his 
men  to  convince  him  that  he  was  out  of  his  element  among 
purposeful  Puritans.  There  was  not  even  leisure  for  read- 
ing, and  much  less  for  writing  in  flowers  of  speech,  only 
the  jotting  down  of  plain  every-day  happenings,  to  inform 
the  friends  in  England  and  Holland  of  the  advance  of  the 

277 


278  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 


frontier  line.     Hence 
literature  before  1700. 

JAMAICA  PLAIN 

LANDMARKS  :  Mile-stone,  Eliot 
and  Centre  Sts.,  "  Five  miles  to  Bos- 
ton town-house.  P.  Dudley."  Jo- 
seph Curtis  homestead  (1722)  of 
four  generations,  used  as  barracks 
by  R.  I.  troops,  near  the  old  pump  in 
Hyde's  Square.  Captain  Benjamin 
Hallowell  (loyalist)  house  (1738), 
corner  of  Centre  and  Boylston  Sts.; 
used  for  hospital  1775  ;  confiscated 
by  State  ;  reclaimed  by  the  Hallo- 
well  heir,  Nicholas  Ward  Boylston  ; 
now  residence  of  the  Dr.  Benjamin 
F.  Wing  family.  General  William 
H.  Sumner  house,  residence  of 
Henry  R.  Reed.  Stephen  Brewer- 
William  D.  Ticknor  house,  Thomas 
St.  Captain  Artemus  Winchester 
homestead  (1800)  on  John  Morey 
farm.  Col.  Henry  Hatch-Hallett 
house,  built  by  Crowell  Hatch  in 
West  Indian  style.  Balch  house, 
built,  about  1800,  by  Sheriff  Cutler, 
maternal  grandfather  of  Julia  Ward 
Howe.  Site  Edward  Bridge  home- 
stead (1710).  corner  Centre  and 
May  Sts.  Louder  homestead,  Loud- 
er's  Lane.  Captain  William  Gordon 
Weld-Edwin  Peter  house,  South  St., 
built  in  West  Indian  style  ;  in  the 
garden,  in  bed  of  Stony  Brook,  a 
perfect  beaver  dam  was  found,  with 
marks  of  beaver's  teeth  on  the  but- 
ternuts. Old  Harris  Lands,  now 
divided  into  the  Hook,  Pratt,  and 
Sprague  estates.  Allandale  or  Sar- 
gent's Woods,  the  Manlius  Sargent 
estate. 


we  gather  but  fragments  of  American 
The  Brook  Farmers  and  the  pioneers, 
arising  with  the  sun  for  the  day's 
work,  each  discovered  that  long- 
continued  exercise  in  a  broiling 
sun  is  incompatible  with  intel- 
lectual activity.  You  remember 
that  when  Zenobia  gibed  Miles 
Coverdale  because  he  did  not 
make  a  song  while  loading  hay, 
as  Burns  did,  that  he  was  quite 
positive  that  Burns  never  wrote 
a  song  while  reaping  barley,  "he 
was  no  poet  while  a  farmer,  and 
no  farmer  while  a  poet." 

As  early  as  1633,  one  hears  in 
"Pond  Plain"  the  sound  of  the 
axe  of  William  Curtis,  who  hewed 
out  his  log  hut,  and,  on  a  wider 
clearing,  in  1639,  built  of  the 
felled  timber  a  lean-to,  which 
sturdily  resisted  the  vicissitudes 
of  a  New  England  climate  and 
shielded  Curtises  for  two  hundred 
and  fifty  years.1 

The  British  officers  who  skated 
on  the  pond  and  supped  after- 
wards at  the  Peacock  Inn 2  (a 
favorite  resting-place  also  of  Gen- 


1  This  was  one  of   the  oldest  houses  in  the  country  and  stood  near 
Boylston  Station 

2  The  Peacock  Inn,  kept  by  Lemuel  Child,  Captain  of  the  Minute-men, 
which  eventually  became  the  country  house  of  Samuel  Adams,  stood  on 
the  corner  of  Centre   and  Allandale  streets,  near  Weld  Hill,  the  point 
which  Washington  had  appointed  as  a  rallying-place  for  the  troops  in 
case  of  disaster,  as  it  was  on  the  direct  road  to  Dedham,  which  held  sup- 


280  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

eral  Washington  and  General  Knox1  during  the  siege 
of  Boston)  must  have  admired  these  old  White  Pines, 
in  our  epoch  the  crown  of  "Pine  Bank,"  and  so  secluding 
the  Perkins  mansion  that  it  had  quite  the  air  of  a  storied 
English  manor.  A  beautiful  fountain  on  the  terrace  de- 
signed by  Anne  Whitney,  marks  a  new  regime,  that  of  the 
Park  Commissioners,  who  will  take  care  that  the  White 
Pines  are  never  disturbed. 
John  Rowe,  the  Boston  merchant,  writes  in  his  Diary: 

23  Oct.  1776,  I  dined  at  the  Peacock  with  Wm-  Livingston, 
Mr.  Thomas  Russell,  Mr.  Wm-  Savin,  Mr.  Tuthill  Hubbard, 
Colo.  Wm-  Palfrey,  Mr.  James  Bowdoin  and  Mr.  Martin 
Brimmer.  I  came  to  Town  and  Spent  the  Evening  with 
Mrs.  Rowe.2 

The  house  of  the  learned  Francis  Bernard,  royal  gover- 
nor [1760-1769]  quite  outvied  the  Hutchinson  mansion, 
and  Lady  Frankland's  three  storied  brick  dwelling  on 
Garden  Court  at  the  North  End,  the  pride  of  provincial 
Boston;  Governor  Bernard's  hall  was  twenty  feet  wide  and 
fifty-seven  feet  long!  Quite  spacious  enough,  forsooth,  to 
allow  six  squares  in  the  minuet,  even  with  the  hoops  of  that 
day ;  the  dances  of  the  period  were  tripped  to  the  music  of 
the  spinet  or  flute  and  viol, — Boston's  Delight,  Love  and 
Opportunity,  Soldier's  Joy,  the  College  Hornpipe,  or  Merick's 
Graces. 

Before  the  politic  governor  quarrelled  with  the  Assembly 
with  whose  indignation  against  unjust  taxation  he  pre- 

plies.  The  officers  of  the  Crown  also  frequented  the  little  West  Roxbury 
Tavern,  on  the  old  stage  route  to  Providence;  its  windows  and  mirrors 
are  covered  with  sentiments  scratched  by  British  diamonds. 

1  General  Henry  Knox  was  a  prominent  member  of  the  Society  of  the 
Cincinnati,  and  Secretary  of  War  under  the  old  Congress  of  1785;    as 
Brigadier-General  of  Artillery,  then  Major-Gen  eral,  he  carried  off  honors 
at  Bunker  Hill,  Trenton,  Brandywine,  Monmouth,  and  Yorktown. 

2  From  the  original  MS.  by  permission  of  Mrs.  Anne  Rowe  Cunning- 
ham. 


Jamaica  Plain  281 

tended  to  sympathize,  many  patriots  mingled  in  his  splen- 
did fetes;  the  guests  promenaded  in  the  shade  of  fig  and 
lemon  trees  and  shrubs  imported  from  the  tropics,  their 
novel  foliage  supplying  a  topic  when  conversation  lagged. 
Lady  Bernard  heard  the  joy-bells  of  Boston  speeding  the 
departure  of  the  King's  advocate,  and  soon  followed  her 
husband.  Another  loyalist,  Sir  William  Pepperell,  lived 
here  three  years;  after  its  confiscation  it  was  the  home  of 
Martin  Brimmer,  then  of  Captain  John  Prince;  to-day  it  is 
the  Edward  Rice  estate. 

The  garden  of  Francis  Parkman  on  Prince  Street,  oppo- 
site Pine  Bank  and  adjoining  the  Jonas  Chickering  place, 
was  his  delight;  our  great  historian  turned  scientist  in  his 
leisure  hours  to  "enjoy  in  gardening  the  pure  delicacies  of 
agriculture."  The  art  of  gardening  appealed  also  to  Dr. 
John  C.  Warren,  who  believed  health  and  happiness  lay 
hidden  therein,  and  in  these  gardens  on  different  plans  one 
may  read  tastes  and  even  character,  a  sort  of  unwritten 
biography  of  the  owner.  "  Tell  me,  will  you,  what  governed 
you  in  the  laying  out  of  the  garden  that  you  love?"  says 
Alfred  Austin. 

The  "Jamaica  End  of  Roxbury,"  '  as  Jamaica  Plain  was 
called  before  it  became  a  part  of  West  Roxbury,  has  not 
only  been  a  land  of  elegant  country-seats,  but  of  typical 
New  England  farms,  with  peaches,  pears,  plums,  and 
berries,  after  the  fashion  of  the  May  homestead,  where 
children  swung  to  the  rafters  in  the  great  square  barn, 
climbed  cherry  trees,  and  jumped  for  the  long  arm  of  the 
well-sweep.  The  four  lower  rooms  with  ancient  beams 
and  fireplace,  the  quaint  little  doorway,  kept  as  of  yore, 
are  precious  possessions  which  have  been  preserved  in 

1  Its  name,  signifying  "Isles  of  Springs,"  commemorated  Cromwell's 
victory  over  Jamaica.  Many  of  the  houses  were  built  in  West  Indian 
fashion,  with  only  a  story  and  a  half  in  the  front  and  two  back. 


282  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

remodelling ;  the  stone  mansion  house,  occupied  by  descend- 
ants of  the  Mays,  now  faces  the  Arborway,  a  park  boulevard 
passing  through  the  old  orchard. 

At  "Greenbank"  on  the  Dedham  highway  (Centre 
Street),  the  Rev.  William  Ware  lived  for  a  time  and  wrote 
Zenobia.  It  has  the  same  dear,  old-fashioned  flower-beds 
bordering  tiny  walks  planned  by  a  little  girl  fifty  years  ago, 


The  Moses  Williams  Mansion,  erected  1805.     Jamaica  Plain. 

who  begged  a  plot  where  only  raspberry  bushes  grew,  at  the 
time  that  the  house  became  the  Manning  homestead  on 
Manning  Hill,  now  the  residence  of  Mrs.  Harriet  Manning 
Whitcomb.  On  the  Burrows  estate  is  the  beautiful  memor- 
ial hospital  to  Mary  Faulkner,  daughter  of  Dr.  George 
Faulkner. 

Facing  the  Square  at  Centre  and  South  streets  is  the 
Loring-Greenough  house;  the  frame  was  imported  by  the 
brave  Commodore  Joshua  Loring,  loyalist,  wounded  before 


Jamaica  Plain  283 

Quebec  while  in  command  on  Lake  Ontario.  Like  Colonel 
Royall,  the  echo  of  guns  caused  him  to  depart  for  England, 
leaving  all  his  possessions.  General  Nathanael  Greene  made 
the  Loring  house  his  headquarters;  becoming  the  hospital 
of  the  Roxbury  camp,  fifty  soldiers  who  died  here  lie  in  the 
old  Walter  Street  burying-ground,  so-called  from  the  Rev. 
Nathaniel  Walter,  first  minister  of  the  first  meeting-house 
of  the  second  Parish  of  Roxbury  (1712),  which  stood  hard 
by.  The  house  was  confiscated  and  sold  at  the  Bunch  of 
Grapes  tavern,  and  purchased  by  Colonel  Isaac  Sears,  mem- 
ber of  the  Provincial  Congress ;  after  1 784  it  became  the  home 
of  David  Stoddard  Greenough,  son  of  Thomas  Greenough, 
one  of  the  Revolutionary  Committee  of  Correspondence.1 

Benjamin  Pemberton  with  his  wife  Susanna  built  the 
Third  Parish  Church  in  1769  on  the  land  given  by  the 
Apostle  Eliot.  Its  bell  was  a  gift  from  John  Hancock,  who 
had  purchased  (1780)  the  Dr.  Lemuel  Hay  ward  estate  (dur- 
ing the  nineteenth  century  the  home  of  the  Nathaniel  Curtis 
family).  Governor  Hancock  soon  sold  his  summer  resi- 
dence here,  having  been  offended  by  the  ill-advised  public 
censure  of  a  Puritan  of  the  Puritans,  the  Rev.  William 
Gordon,2  first  minister,  upright  and  blunt  of  speech;  of 

1  The    Boston   Committee   of  Correspondence  has  been   likened   to   a 
political   party  manager,   of  which   Samuel   Adams  was   the  promoter. 
"  Its  importance  as  a  piece  of  revolutionary  machinery  can  hardly  be 
overestimated.     It  created  public  opinion,  and  played  upon  it  to  fashion 
events.     It  was  the  mother  of  committees,  and  these  committees,  local 
and  intercolonial,  worked  up  the  war.      It  initiated  measures     ...     it 
was  the  germ  of  a  government." — Committees  of  Correspondence  of  the 
American  Revolution,  by  Edward  D.  Collins.     Published  in  the  Report  of 
the  American  Historical  Association  for  IQOI. 

2  Dr.  William  Gordon  as  he  "ambled  on  his  gentle  bay  horse,  in  short 
breeches  and  buckled  shoes,  revered  wig  and  three-cornered  hat"  was 
the  terror  of  the  youth  whom  he  catechised  and  did  not  spare  the  birch. 
One  winter's  day  he  fell  at  full  length  on  the  icy  threshold,  his  wig  rolling 
off,  to  the  great  glee  of  the  boys,  who  gave  three  cheers.     Thenceforth  he 
tried  a  more  gentle  persuasion. 


284  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

such  unrepressible  candor,  indeed,  that  Benjamin  Pember- 
ton  altered  his  bequest  to  the  Third  Parish  in  favor  of  "the 
poor  of  Boston."  Pemberton  Square  was  named  for  this, 
philanthropist.  The  early  resting-place  of  the  Third  Parish 
with  moss-covered  stones  is  alone  serene  'midst  the  increas- 
ing bustle  of  the  town : 

"There  scatter'd  oft, — the  earliest  of  the  year, — 
By  hands  unseen  are  show'rs  of  violets  found: 
The  red -bird  loves  to  build  and  warble  there, 
And  little  footsteps  lightly  print  the  ground."  T 

Why  Jamaica  Plain  was  chosen  as  the  home  of  intellectual 
men  of  admirable  taste  was  not  only  on  account  of  natural 
loveliness,  but  a  tiny  school-house  stood  as  early  as  1676  on 
the  green  triangle  where  is  now  the  Soldiers'  Monument. 
The  Apostle  Eliot,  minister  of  the  First  Church  of  Roxbury, 
loved  to  dispense  the  joys  of  learning,  and  gave  seventy-five 
acres  in  Pond  Plain  "to  support  a  school  and  school- 
master." From  his  rocky  pulpit  in  the  woods  (on  Brook 
Farm,  West  Roxbury)  he  preached  to  the  poor  Indian, 
having  learned  their  tongue  that  he  might  give  them  a 
Bible  of  their  own  to  read,  mark,  and  learn.  It  was  the 
custom  of  a  few  of  the  blithe  brotherhood  of  Brook  Farm  to 
spend  the  Sabbath  afternoon  at  Eliot's  pulpit,  "over- 
shadowed by  the  canopy  of  a  birch-tree,  which  served  as  a 
sounding-board,"  through  which  the  sunstreaks  sifted  with 
an  air  of  cheerfulness  less  solemn  than  among  the  "dark- 
browed  pines"  of  Eliot's  time. 

The  shattered  heap  of  boulders  at  one  point  formed  a 
shallow  cave,  where  Hollingsworth,  Miles  Coverdale,  Ze- 
nobia,  and  Priscilla  took  refuge  from  a  sudden  shower. 

1  This  beautiful  stanza  in  the  original  transcript  of  Gray's  Elegy  was 
inserted  before  the  epitaph,  but  rejected  because  the  author  considered 
that  it  occasioned  too  long  a  parenthesis. 


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286  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

"On  the  threshold,  or  just  across  it,  grew  a  tuft  of  pale 
columbine."  * 

The  Brook  Farmers  2  built  many  castles  along  the  Charles, 
and  from  mossy  logs  talked  over  their  truly  beautiful  and 
unselfish  schemes  of  advancing  the  world.  "Outside  bar- 
barians" laughed  at  the  spectacle  of  rustic  philosophers 
hoeing  out  wisdom  and  potatoes  at  the  same  time,  and  the 
neighbors  actually  had  the  face  to  say  that  these  country 
bumpkins  "raised  five  hundred  tufts  of  burdock,  mistaking 
them  for  cabbages."  Yet,  was  not  the  experiment  at 
Brook  Farm  a  success  after  all?  Not,  we  grant,  precisely 
as  some  transcendental  dreamers  dreamed,  by  the  estab- 
lishing of  a  phalanstery ;  but ,  who  can  affirm  that  the  asso- 
ciation at  Brook  Farm  of  broad  and  brilliant  minds  did  not 
melt  certain  icy  corners  of  lingering  Puritan  creeds,  and  all 
the  world  sees  that  the  harp  strings  of  humanitarianism, 
otherwise  brotherly  love,  touched  by  them,  never  cease  to 
vibrate. 

Jamaica  Park  is  connected  by  the  Arborway  with  the 
Arnold  Arboretum,  the  "foremost  tree  museum  in  the 
world."  The  land  is  historic,  being  the  homestead  grant 
to  Captain  Joseph  Weld  from  the  Province.  It  was  pur- 
chased of  the  Welds,  after  one  hundred  and  fifty  years,  by 
Benjamin  Bussey,  who  bequeathed  his  acres  of  great  natural 
attractions  to  Harvard  University.  Its  dedication  as  a 
great  scientific  garden  under  the  inspiration  of  Professor 
Charles  Sprague  Sargent,  having  been  endowed  by  James 
Arnold  of  New  Bedford,  has  only  enhanced  its  sylvan 
beauty.  Near  the  Arborway  entrance  the  museum  contains 
the  Hunnewell  botanical  collection  and  a  rare  library,  the 
gift  of  Professor  Sargent.  From  here  the  trees  are  planted 

1  The  Blithedale  Romance,  by  Nathaniel  Hawthorne. 

*  John  Sullivan  Dwight,  Brook  Farmer,  by  George  Willis  Cooke. 


Arnold  Arboretum  287 

in  botanical  sequence  of  groups,  ending  with  the  larches  at 
Walter  Street. 

The  Bussey  mansion  became  the  house  of  Mr.  Thomas 
Motley,  who  married  a  granddaughter  of  Mr.  Bussey.  In 
Mrs.  Harriet  M.  Whitcomb's  delightfully  intimate  Annals 
and  Reminiscences  of  Jamaica  Plain,  she  says  that  "Mr. 
Bussey 's  life  is  a  remarkable  illustration  of  the  success 
which  results  from  natural  ability  and  persevering  industry. 
With  very  small  pecuniary  means  ...  he  ultimately 
acquired  large  wealth  and  influence.  Possibly  some  here 
may  remember  the  family  coach,  with  its  yellow  body  and 
trimmings,  drawn  by  four  fine  horses,  in  which  Mr.  Bussey 
and  his  family  rode  to  church  each  Sabbath.  .  .  .  On 
the  occasion  of  President  Andrew  Jackson's  visit  to  Boston, 
accompanied  by  Vice- President  Van  Buren,  in  June,  1833, 
Mr.  Bussey  joined  the  grand  procession  in  his  yellow  coach, 
drawn  by  six  horses,  richly  caparisoned,  and  attended  by 
liveried  servants. 

For  the  sake  of  the  first  impression  of  abrupt,  precipitous 
Hemlock  Hill  with  its  hanging  wood,  let  us  take  Mr.  Bax- 
ter's advice  to  visitors,  and  enter  the  Arnold  Arboretum  by 
South  Street  from  Forest  Hills.1  So  deep  a  shadow  is 
thrown  by  these  superb  hemlocks  that  not  a  flower,  not  even 
a  leaf,  dares  lift  its  head  through  the  thick  primeval  carpet- 
ing of  feathery  leaves  beneath.  Below,  a  chattering  brook 

1  To  Hemlock  Hill  from  Forest  Hills  is  some  eight  minutes'  walk. 
"Thence  walk  or  drive  to  the  Walter  Street  entrance,  then  returning, 
follow  the  main  drive  with  detour  to  Weld  Hill,  and  thence  to  the  main 
entrance  of  the  Arborway.  Coming  from  Olmstead  Park  follow  the 
Arborway  to  South  Street  and  thence  to  Hemlock  Hill." — The  Boston 
Park  Guide,  with  maps  by  Sylvester  Baxter,  Secretary  of  the  preliminary 
Metropolitan  Park  Commission.  (The  maps  are  also  displayed  in  the 
various  shelter  and  other  buildings  of  the  parks.)  A  park  carriage  will 
convey  you  over  the  Arborway  and  through  Country  Park,  the  rural 
section  of  Franklin  Park. 


288  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

breaks  the  breathless  quiet  of  the  wood,  and  in  June  the 
blossoming  rhododendrons  are  lifted  into  high  relief  by 
the  massive  dark  grandeur  of  the  hemlocks.  In  the  valley, 
shrubs  are  planted  in  botanical  order;  the  earliest  mass  of 
bloom  is  the  forsythia,  then  the  lilacs  parade,  followed  by 
the  rhododendrons  and  mountain  laurel. 

In  Franklin  Park  you  are  on  ground  planted  by  William 
Pynchon  of  Winthrop's  company;  loitering  along  in  this 
''Rocky  Wilderness  Land,"  you  notice  that  pudding-stone 
is  "thicker  than  daisies  in  June,"  and  you  quite,  understand 
why  our  forefathers  called  their  home  "  Rocksberry " ; 
rough  wayside  boulders  are  entirely  hidden  by  the  sheer, 
white  blossoms  of  the  Rosa  Wichuriana,  a  Japanese  wild 
rose. 

Soft  Indian  moccasins  first  trod  out  the  path  between 
Boston  Bay  and  Patuxet  (Plymouth),  crossing  Franklin 
Park  on  the  course  of  its  "Old  Trail  Road."  On  a  shady 
knoll,  the  ' '  Resting  Place, ' '  our  first  military  company 
formed  in  the  Colonies  for  armed  resistance  halted  on  its 
march  home  from  the  fight  at  Concord,  under  officers 
Heathfield  and  Pierpont  of  early  Roxbury  lineage.  There 
is  a  charming  vine-covered  arbor  on  "  Schoolmaster's  Hill," 
and  hot  water  for  ' '  the  cup  that  cheers ' '  may  be  procured 
at  the  picturesque  shelter  house  designed  by  Arthur  Rotch. 
Emerson  wrote  some  of  his  earlier  poems  on  this  delightful 
hill,  where  he  lived  while  teaching  school  at  Roxbury.1 

Bellevue  Hill  rises  on  the  west  side  of  Washington  Street, 
our  road  from  Forest  Hills  to  Dedham.  On  the  east  side 

1  The  splendid  colonial  homesteads  of  Roxbury  are  no  more.  Dudley 
mansion  disappeared  under  necessary  fortifications  after  the  battle  of 
Bunker  Hill.  The  birthplace  of  General  Joseph  Warren  is  commemorized 
~by  a  stone  house  built  in  1846  by  Dr.  John  Collins  Warren.  The  Governor 
Shirley-Eustis  mansion  stood  on  Dudley  Street  not  far  from  the  Eustis 
Street  burying-ground,  where  are  written  the  names  of  the  Apostle  Eliot, 
the  Dudleys,  Eliphalet  Porter,  Oliver  Peabody,  and  other  famous  men. 


Stony  Brook  Woods  289 

spread  out  Stony  Brook  Woods;  the  beautiful  West  Rox- 
bury  parkway  is  the  link  between  this  metropolitan  reserva- 
tion and  the  Arnold  Arboretum,  thus  uniting  it  with  the 
municipal  park  system  of  Boston.  It  is  an  easy  ascent  to 
the  Bellevue  water-tower,  where  is  a  capital  table  of  the 
horizon  extending  even  so  far  as  Monadnoc ;  the  view  is  re- 
markably beautiful  at  dusk  when  the  great  blue  range  of 
the  Massawachusett  fades,  the  sentinel  harbor  lights  appear, 
and  rows  of  white  or  yellow  street  lights  reveal  the  towns  of 
three  counties.  Descending  the  hillside,  here  is  the  prettiest 
entrance  to  the  Stony  Brook  Woods,  a  territory  of  rocky, 
wooded  elevations  of  violet  beds  and  marsh  marigolds.  You 
are  continually  seeking  a  new  enchanting  peep  at  the  Blue 
Hills,  literally  blue,  though  varying  in  tinge  from  a  deep 
purple  to  a  faint  pink.  Between  your  little  hill  and  yonder 
great  hills  softened  by  flitting  light  and  shadow,  is  a  rugged 
glen  and  a  dark  silvery  pond  in  the  hollow.  Ten  minutes' 
walk  by  Turtle  Pond  will  bring  you  to  "  The  Perch."  Here 
during  the  dry  season  stands  the  Fire  Patrol,  watching  for 
the  creeping  brush  fires ;  at  the  least  puff  of  smoke  he  signals 
by  flag  the  reservation  office,  bringing  a  fire  wagon  to  the 
scene.  In  spite  of  the  precautions  of  the  Park  Commis- 
sioners, who  hope  to  coax  back  the  heavy  growth  of  pine, 
there  have  been  several  rapid  and  disastrous  fires.  A 
wooded  way  of  a  mile  leads  to  Rooney's  Rock  near  Happy 
Valley,  and  the  skating  meadows  on  the  Hyde  Park  corner 
of  the  reservation. 


DEDHAM,  1635-1636 

"Old  Dedham  town  that  quietly  lies 
Beside  the  winding  Charles  River, 
Thy  houses,  those  sweet  and  quaint  remains 
Of  old-time  grandeur." 

DONALD  RAMSAY. 

SOME  five  years  after  the  passengers  of  the  Mary  and 
John  had  adventured  up  the  Charles  and  made  a  settlement 
at  Watertown,  as  Captain  Roger  Clap  has  told  us  in  his 
Memoirs,  several  of  the  more  venturesome  planters,  includ- 
ing Edward  Alleyne,  John  Everard,  John  Gay,  John  Ellis, 
and  Samuel  Morse,  decided  to  seek  new  fields  and  wider 
farms  farther  up  the  Charles ;  they  felled  and  hollowed  out 
some  large  trees,  and,  in  these  rude  canoes  paddled  up  the 
narrow,  deeply  flowing  stream,  impatiently  turning  curve 
after  curve  around  Nonantum  (Newton  T),  until,  emerging 
from  the  tall  forest  into  the  open,  they  saw  in  the  sunset 
glow  a  golden  river  twisting  back  and  forth  through  broad, 
rich  meadows,  and  many  wild  fowl 2  startled  into  flight. 
Seeking  the  most  favorable  spot  for  a  home,  the  pioneers, 
like  Miles  Courtenay  and  Moore  Carew,  paddled  hastily  on; 
but,  in  the  words  of  Carew : 

The  river  took  many  turns,  so  that  it  was  a  burden 
the  continual  turning  about.  .  .  .  West,  east,  and 
north  we  turned  on  that  same  meadow  and  progressed 
none,  so  that  I,  rising  in  the  boat,  saw  the  river  flowing 
just  across  a  bit  of  grass,  in  a  place  where  I  knew  we  had 

1  Newton  has  seventeen  miles  of  water-front,  the  Charles  River  flowing 
around  three  sides  of  the  town 

2  Tradition  says  that  the  "  famous  fowl  meadow  grass  "  of  the  Neponset, 
superior  to  that  of  any  other  kind  in  the  fresh  water  meadows,  was  first 
brought  by  a  large  flight  of  wild  fowl. — Worthington's  History  of  Dedham. 

2QO 


Dedham 


291 


passed  through  nigh  an  hour  before.  "Moore,"  said  Miles 
then  to  me,  "the  river  is  like  its  Master,  our  good  King 
Charles,  of  sainted  memory,  it 


promises  overmuch,  but  gets  you 
nowhere."  * 

In  this  serene  wilderness,  where 
the  Charles  makes  its  great  bend  2 
they  fearlessly  staked  out  the 
home-lots  of  their  plantation,  Con- 
tentment, disliking  less  the  howl  of 
the  wolf  from  Wigwam  and  Purga- 
torie  swamps,  than  the  controver- 
sies of  their  brethren  at  the  Bay. 
Moreover,  frontier  soil  harvests  rich 
wits,  and  the  divers  water-courses 
hereabout  promised  fine  power  for 
the  water  wheels  of  a  saw-and  grist- 
mill; some  clever  mind  immedi- 
ately proposed  turning  one  third 
of  the  waters  of  the  Charles  into  the 
Neponset ;  this  first  artificial  canal 
in  America  was  named  Mother 
Brook,  and  has  for  nearly  three 
centuries  mothered  the  industries 


1  From   the   story  of  King  Noanett,  by 
Frederic    J.    Stimson   ("J.   S.  of    Dale"). 
Mr.  Stimson  wrote  this  graceful  romance  of 
early  Dedham  in  his  historic  house  built  by 
Fisher  Ames   on   grounds   sloping   to    the 
Charles  River. 

2  "Dedham      Island"       (Riverdale)      is 
formed  by  a  bend  in  the  river  seven  miles 
long.      "Long  Ditch,"  the  cut-off,  dug  in 
1652,   one  half  mile  across,  connected  its 
upper  and  lower  channels,  preventing  dam- 
age to  the  meadows  during  a  freshet. 


DEDHAM 

LANDMARKS  :  Willow  Road,  ieads 
past  Fairbanks  house  to  Fairbanks 
Park,  with  famous  "  Pot  Hole." 
Avery  Oak,  East  Street,  presented 
by  Joseph  W.  Clark  to  Dedham  His- 
torical Society, 
stead  (I79S), 


Fisher  Ames  home- 
residence     Frederic 


J.  Stimson  ;  originally  stood  oppo- 
site the  Court  House;  in  1897  moved 
back  toward  the  river.  Site  of  old 
Ames  Tavern,  built  in  1658  for  Cap- 
tain Joshua  Fisher  ;  taken  down  in 
1814  ;  during  Revolution  known  as 
Woodward's  Tavern,  "  Sign  of  the 
Lav;  Book "  ;  Suffolk  Convention 
organized  here,  adjourned  to  Vose 
house,  Milton.  Memorial  Hall. 
Dedham  Historical  Society  building, 
with  valuable  antiquarian  lore  ; 
complete  file  of  the  Ames  Almanack  ; 
land  on  which  it  stands  gift  of  Han- 
nah Shuttleworth,  daughter  of  Jere- 
miah Shuttleworth,  first  postmaster. 
Home  of  Dr.  Nathaniel  Ames  2d 
(1772).  Base  of  the  Pillar  of  Liberty 
on  Unitarian  Church  Green,  erected 
1766  by  the  Sons  of  Liberty,  on 
which  was  placed  a  bust  of  William 
Pitt,  "  who  saved  America  from  im- 
pending slavery,  and  confirmed  our 
most  loyal  Affection  to  King  George 
III.  by  procuring  a  repeal  of  the 
Stamp  Act  "  (inscription) ;  the  bust 
was  destroyed  later.  Allin  Evan- 
gelical Church  on  site  of  the  house  of 
four  ministers  of  Dedham.  "  Norfolk 
House,"  near  St.  Paul's  Church,  one 
of  the  oldest  Episcopal  parishes 
in  New  England.  Samuel  Dexter 
house,  property  of  Mrs.  Ellen  D. 
Burgess.  Judge  Haven  house,  High 
St.  Dowse- Josiah  Quincy  house 
(1800) ;  window  from  old  Hay- 
market  Theatre;  home  of  Edmund 
Quincy,  a  leading  Abolitionist,  au- 
thor of  Wensley  i  residence  of  Mary 
(Adams)  Quincy.  Charles  River 
meadows,  junction  of  Mother  Brook 
at  "  Two  Rivers."  Powder  Rock  ; 
"  The  Rock  with  lichens  hoar " 


292  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 


(Lowell).  Powder  house  (1766), 
built  on  Aaron  Fuller's  land.  Train- 
ing-field on  Great  Common  ;  Wight 
lot  ;  still  held  by  Wight  family  under 
original  Indian  deed  of  1636.  Law 
office  of  Horace  Mann,  now  dwelling- 
house.  Old  Parish  Burial-ground  ; 
oldest  stone,  Hannah  Dyar,  1678. 
Tablet  on  Bussey  St.,  on  site  of 
"  First  Dam  and  Corn-mill "  built 
in  1640  by  Abraham  Shaw ;  com- 
pleted by  John  Elderkin  (who  re- 
moved to  New  London,  Conn.,  and 
built  first  church  and  mill  there)  ; 
sold  to  Nathaniel  Whiting,  1642. 
Dedham  Boat-Club  house.  "  Wil- 
son's Mountain  "  and  cave  ;  fine 
view.  View  of  Nickerson  estate, 
"  Riverdale,"  home  of  Thomas  Mot- 
ley, Sr.,  ;  doorway  so  wide  that  the 
owner  might  drive  in  with  coach  and 
four.  Ellis  Oak,  Clapboardtree  St.; 
diameter  foliage,  160  feet.  Purga- 
tory, Islington. 


of  Dedham.  Soon  the  Court  de- 
creed that  Contentment  should 
be  called  Dedham,  presumably  in 
honor  of  the  three  Johns  from  Ded- 
ham, England,  —  -  John  Dwight,1 
John  Page,  and  John  Rogers.  One 
hundred  and  twenty  yeomen  signed 
the  Town  Covenant,2  whereby  was 
agreed  to  keep  off  all  men  "con- 
trary-minded" to  their  determina- 
tion to  "walke  in  a  peaceable 
conversation." 


Edward  Everett  said  of  the 
town  of  his  ancestor,  Richard 
Everard,  that  these  settlers  of 
Dedham  were  "singularly  disposed  to  keep  out  of  hot 
water.  .  .  .  There  was  but  one  topic  on  which  they 
warmed  into  passion,  and  that  was  Liberty.  If  a  poor 
Quaker  was  to  be  scourged  at  the  cart-tail,  they  waited  in 
Dedham  for  orders  from  the  metropolis ;  but  when  a  usurper 
was  to  be  prostrated,  when  a  bold  champion  was  required  to 
burst  into  Mr.  Usher's  house,  to  drag  forth  the  tyrant  by 
the  collar,  to  bind  him  and  cast  him  into  a  fort,  then  Ded- 


1  With  John  Dwight  came  his  son  Timothy,  from  whom  are  descended 
the  Presidents  Timothy  Dwight,  of  Yale  University,     Others  from  Eng- 
land were  John  Allin,   pastor  of  the  church  thirty-two  years;    Major 
Eleazer  Lusher,  captain  of  the  train-band  and  an  original  founder  of  the 
Ancient    and    Honorable   Artillery   Company;     Captain    Daniel    Fisher, 
selectman  for  thirty-two  years  ;  Michael  Metcalf,  the  schoolmaster;   Lieu- 
tenant Joshua  Fisher,  who  kept  the  tavern;    Deacon  Francis  Chickering, 
Deputy  and  Samuel  Guild;   other  families  whose  houses  stood  on  the  old 
High  Street  and  in  Clapboard  Trees  Parish  (West  Dedham)  were  those 
of  A  very,  Bacon,  Colburn,  Fales,  Farrington,  Kingsbury,  Wright,  and 
Wilson. 

2  The  complete  colonial  records  have  been  compiled  by  Don  Gleason 
Hill,  President  of  the  Dedham  Historical  Society. 


Dedham 


293 


ham  is  ready  with  her  intrepid  Daniel  Fisher."  Mr.  Everett 
refers  to  the  going  up  to  Boston  of  the  country  people, 
greatly  incensed  against  Sir  Edmund  Andros,  who,  it  is 


The  Fairbanks  Homestead,  Dedham. 
"  What  landmark  so  congenial  as  a  tree." 

said,  was  collared  and  led  back  to  imprisonment  at  Fort 
Hill  by  Daniel  Fisher,  the  great-grand-father  of  Fisher 
Ames. 

It  was  this  Daniel  Fisher,  and  John  Fairbanks,  who  were 


294  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

sent  out  by  the  town  as  explorers,  to  select  eight  thousand 
acres  somewhere  in  the  wilderness,  for  a  new  plantation 
granted  Dedham  by  the  Court  in  place  of  two  thousand 
acres  taken  for  the  praying  Indians  of  Natick.  Certain  ex- 
plorers had  favored  the  ' '  chestnut  lands ' '  of  Lancaster,  but 
Fairbanks  and  Fisher  selected  the  beautiful  valley  of  Po- 
cumtuck ;  here  the  lovely  town  of  Deerfield  was  founded  by 
men  from  Dedham,  Captain  Pynchon  of  Springfield,  and 
four  others. 

The  Apostle  Eliot  being  nigh  with  the  praying  Indians, 
Dedham  had  little  fear  of  Indian  raids,  although  each  settler 
was  duly  cautioned  to  keep  a  ladder  that  he  might  readily 
escape  the  "Salvages"  by  climbing  to  the  top  of  his  chim- 
ney, as  well  as  put  out  a  fire  on  his  thatch  roof ;  any  man 
who  tied  his  horse  to  the  meeting-house  ladder  forfeited 
sixpence  to  Robert  Onion.  One  day  the  killing  of  a  white 
man  by  an  Indian  was  traced  directly  to  King  Philip,  and 
the  war  opened ;  the  people  of  Wrentham  fled  to  Dedham,1 
and  Medfield  was  burned.  A  great  blow  was  dealt  the 
Indian  cause  by  a  company  of  Dedham  and  Medfield  men 
who  captured  Pomham,  Sachem  of  Narraganset,  and  fifty 
warriors  in  Dedham  woods. 

In  staging  days,  Dedham  and  Medfield  were  on  the  middle 
stage  road  to  Hartford  from  Boston,  and  often  twelve 
coaches  drew  up  at  the  Ames  Tavern  for  breakfast.  One 
consolation  of  a  traveller  who  was  compelled  to  rise  before 
daybreak  on  a  "snapping"  winter's  morning  was  the  pros- 
pect of  good  cheer  at  Dedham,  spiced  with  the  hot  flip  iron, 
or  loggerhead,  and  a  dash  of  humor  from  their  witty  host,  the 
celebrated  Dr.  Nathaniel  Ames,2  astronomer,  physician, 

1  Old  Dedham  included  Wollomonapoag  (Wrentham)   and  Bogastow 
(Medfield),  also  Needham,  Bellingham,Walpole,  Franklin,  Dover,  Natick, 
and  part  of  Sherburne. 

2  Dr.  Ames  inherited  his  landed  estate  from  his  son  by  his  first  wife, 
and  because  of  excessive  annoyance  at  the  slow  progress  of  the  law  in 


Old  Dedham  Taverns 


295 


almanac-maker,  and  tavern-keeper;  his  brilliant  son,  Fisher 
Ames,  was  born  in  this  tavern. 

An  interesting  accessory  of  early  taverns  was  a  small  box 


Old  "Norfolk  House,"  Dedham,  so-called  when  last  used  as  a  Public  House 

in  1866.      Long  known  as  the  Alden  Tavern,  and  originally  the 

Marsh  Tavern,  built  for  Martin  Marsh  on  land   leased 

to  him  by  the  First  Church  in  1801. 

deciding  that  he  was  "next  of  kin  to  Fisher,"  Dr.  Ames  hung  out  a  unique 
tavern  sign  lampooning  the  tardy  court.  The  five  judges  were  painted 
in  big  wigs,  the  two  dissenting  judges  turning  their  backs  on  the  Proinnce 
Laws.  The  judges, — Benjamin  Lynde,  Richard  Saltonstall,  Paul  Dudley, 
Stephen  Sewall,  and  John  Gushing — dispatched  a  sheriff  to  bring  this 
bold  sign  before  them,  but  Dr.  Ames  rode  faster  and  tore  down  his  sign 
ere  the  sheriff  reached  Dedham.  Dr.  Ames's  most  famous  contemporary 
was  the  Rev.  Samuel  Dexter,  fourth  minister;  the  house  of  his  son 
Samuel  is  standing  in  Dedham.  Samuel  Dexter  the  third  was  Secretary 
of  War,  and  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  under  John  Adams. 


296  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

nailed  to  the  wall,  with  an  opening  into  which  money  might 
be  dropped.  On  the  box  was  plainly  printed,  "To  Insure 
Promptness,"  and  "it  was  expected  that  guests  would  drop 
in  such  amounts  as  their  inclination  prompted."  The 
money  collected  was  divided  among  the  servants.  Fre- 
quently some  attache  of  the  tavern  would  remind  a  careless 
guest  by  pointing  at  the  box  and  speaking  the  first  letters  of 
the  words,  "T.  I.  P."  It  gradually  became  known  as  the 
"  Tip  Box,"  and  later  as  a  tip.1  The  box  is  no  longer  there, 
but  the  custom  lingers. 

Dr.  Ames's  Astronomical  Diary  and  Almanack,  first  pub- 
lished in  1726,  was  a  great  boon  to  the  sober  New  England 
fireside  by  way  of  literature.  No  one  truly  appreciates  fun 
more  than  our  Yankee  of  the  serious  air ;  this  merry  astron- 
omer's prophecies,  purposely  absurd,  mixed  with  homely 
philosophy,  jest,  and  homeopathic  doses  of  such  writers  as 
Milton,  Addison,  Pope,  and  Dry  den,  made  his  annual  al- 
manac a  welcome  guest.  Dr.  Ames  joined  in  the  laugh  at 
the  failure  of  the  events  he  predicted,  and  his  son  Na- 
thaniel, who  published  the  Almanack  after  his  father's 
death,  manifested  the  same  delicious  sense  of  humor.  In 
his  Diary,  now  in  the  possession  of  the  Dedham  Historical 
Society,  he  notes: 

"Oct.  i.  Country  People  complain  that  I  have  men- 
tioned no  show  in  nex  year's  Almank. 

"Aug.  5,  Sun's  Eclipse  came  on  rather  sooner  than  the 
time  I  said  perhap. 

"Feb.  25,  Sam  Sterns  of  Boston  wants  to  know  how  to 
make  Almanacks. 

"April  19,  1775.  Grand  battle  from  Concord  to  Charles- 
town.  I  went  and  dressed  the  wounded."  2 

1  The  Colonial  Tavern,  by  Edward  Field,  Preston  and  Rounds. 

2  Down  the  Needham  road  to  Dedham  flew  a  messenger  with  the  news 
of  the  advance  on  Lexington.     Captain  Joseph  Guild  "gagged  a  croaker" 
who  said  the  news  was  false,  and  in  an  hour  scarcely  a  man  was  left  in 
Dedham.     Captain   Aaron   Fuller,   Lieutenant   George   Gould,   Captains 


Dr.  Ames's  Almanack 


297 


The  Fairbanks  house  is  piquantly  picturesque  in  its  de- 
clining years.  Mossy  greens,  red  browns,  and  misty  grays 
mingle  on  its  roofs 
of  differing  age,  to 
the  bewilderment  of 
the  artist.  The  main 
roof,  which  seems 
to  expand  in  order 
to  embrace  the  huge 
brick  chimney,  is  be- 
lieved to  have  been 
built  by  Jonathan 
Fairbanks  in  1637  at 
about  the  time  he 
signed  the  covenant. 
After  descending 
through  seven  gen- 
erations the  house 
was  happily  rescued 
from  destruction  by 
Mrs.  J.  Amory  Cod- 
man. 

Between  Dedham 
and  Norwood  in  Westwood  Park  is  the  loveliest  mossy  glen 
imaginable,  entered  by  fascinating  trails.  The  Indians  fre- 
quenting this  woodland  dell  may  have  called  it  in  their 
musical  tongue  "willow  water,"  and  worshipped  the  water- 
spirit  of  the  brook  whitening  the  dark  rocks  with  spray. 
Not  far  from  Westwood  Park  at  Islington  is  Purgatory,  or 
"Ye  Purgatorie  Swampe"  of  the  King  Noanett  territory,  a 
paradise  of  wild  flowers,  long  time  ago  a  dismal  resort  for 
wild -cats  and  other  beasts. 


The  Willow  by  the  Brook,  Westwood 
Park,  Islington. 


William  Bullard,  William  Ellis,  and  Ebenezer  Battle  led  the  Minute-men 
and  the  militia. 


MILTON  (UNQUITY-QUISSET),   1633-1662 

AT  the  summit  of  Milton  Hill,  the  traveller  imbued  with 
a  feeling  for  the  historical  and  poetical  should  rest  content. 
Far  below,  the  Neponset,  opalescent  and  dream-like,  shim- 
mers in  the  marsh-lands,  its  color  varies  at  the  will  of  the 
clouds,  and  these  in  turn  are  subjects  of  the  wind.  Intensely 
blue  is  the  river  when  the  east  wind  sweeps  up  the  vale, 
until,  at  the  sunset  lull,  wonderful  shadows  come  lengthen- 
ing, lengthening,  to  hide  the  meadows.  The  purple  sea-line 
cuts  the  horizon  beyond  Neponset 's  steeples,  Strawberry 
Hill,  Dorchester  Bay,  Thompson's  Island,  Boston  Light, 
and  "Nantasco."  To  the  south,  the  blue  "Massawachu- 
setts  Mount"  of  Captain  John  Smith  stands  sponsor  for 
our  Commonwealth  as  the  "great  hill  place."  This  field  is 
to  be  forever  open,  by  the  gift  of  John  Murray  Forbes,  to 
all  who  stand  on  Unquity  (Milton)  Hill.  Governors  of 
Colony,  Province,  and  State  have  daily  passed  over  this 
ancient  Country  Heigh  Waye  between  Dorchester  and 
Braintree,  which,  before  Israel  Stoughton  built  his  grist 
mill  at  the  foot  of  Unquity  Hill  by  the  Neponset  fording- 
place,  was  known  as  the  "  Old  Indian  Path"  between  Shaw- 
mutt  and  Plymouth. 

Yonder  sycamore  and  Scotch  larch  were  planted  by  the 
enthusiastic  gardener,  Governor  Thomas  Hutchinson,  of 
whom  John  Adams  said,  "  He  had  been  admired,  revered, 
and  almost  adored."  Thomas  Hutchinson  loved  much  his 
"humble  cottage"  on  Unquity  Hill;  indeed,  he  would  not 
have  parted  with  it  for  the  sake  of  high  life  at  Wimpole 
Hall.  He  wrote  to  his  son,  "  I  can  with  good  truth  assure 


A  pleached  Alley  in  the  "Governor's  Garden." 

"  The  lilacs  were  finishing  and  the  jessamine  beginning,  a  feu,1  flowers 
here  behindhand,  a  few  insects  before  their  time,  and  the  vanguard  of  the 
red  butterflies  of  June  fraternized  with  the  vanguard  of  the  white  butterflies 
oj  May."' — Les  Miserables. 

2Q9 


300  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

you  that  I  had  rather  live  at  Milton  and  had  rather  see 
Peggy  and  Tommy  playing  about  me  than  the  Princess  C., 

Prince   A.,    or  -     — ."     When   the 


MILTON 

LANDMARKS:  From  the  Neponset 
River,  Milton  Lower  Mills  over 
Adams  St.  Site  earliest  ford  and 
foot-bridge  on  Neponset  River, 
route  from  Unquity-Quisset  to 
church  in  Dorchester  before  1662. 
Site  Grist  Mill  (Israel  Stoughton's, 
1633),  where  present  Stone  Choco- 
late Mill  stands;  first  corn  ground 
by  water-power  in  N.  E.  Site  first 
Powder  Mill  in  the  country,  Walter 
Everden  and  Israel  Howe,  owners. 
Saw  and  chocolate  mill  where  John 
Hannan  manufactured  first  choco- 
late in  the  country  (1765)1  continued 
by  Dr.  James  Baker  (1772);  con- 
verted into  drug  mill  by  Francis 
Brinley;  here  first  veneers  manufac- 
tured. New  chocolate  mill,  Webb 
and  Twombley  (1885) ;  Mr.  Webb  in- 
troduced chocolate  creams  through- 
out the  west;  replaced  by  brick 
chocolate  mill  of  Henry  L.  Pierce; 
all  these  sites  are  now  occupied  by 
the  Baker  Company.  Daniel  Vose 
house ;  Suffolk  Resolves  adopted  here. 
Milton  Public  Library.  Home  of 
Mrs.  A.  D.  T.  Whitney  on  Adams  St., 
near  junction  of  Randolph  and  Can- 


estate.  Governor  Hutchinson-Rus- 
sell  house.  Dr.  Amos.  Holbrook 
house  (1801).  J.  Murray  Forbes 
estate.  Churchill's  Lane;  pleasant 
walk  by  Milton  Academy  <to  the 
"  Twin  Churches."  Site  First  Meet- 
ing-house on  grassy  triangle.  Colo- 
nel Joseph  Gooch-Edward  Hutchin- 
son  Robbins-Asaph  Churchill  house 
(1740).  Judge  Joseph  M.  Churchill 
house.  Oliver  W.  Peabody  house, 
opposite  Churchill's  Lane.  Belcher 
Milestone.  Rev.  Joseph  Angier 
house.  John  Murray  Forbes  estate, 
residence  of  J.  Malcolm  Forbes. 
Ware  cottage.  Charles  E.  Perkins 
estate.  Glover  house,  on  site  of 
Provincial  Treasurer  William  Foye 
house.  Captain  Robert  B.  Forbes 


or 

snow  has  gone,  spring  spreads  the 
"Governor's  Garden"  with  soft 
green  velvet,  and  the  pleached 
bower  with  unfolding  tendrils ;  the 
orioles  come  to  sing  among  the 
fruit-trees,  snow-balls,  and  bleeding 
hearts  every  June,  as  joyfully  as  on 
the  day  when  Governor  Hutchin- 
son  smilingly — yet  broken-hearted 
-  walked  down  Unquity  Hill, 
shaking  hands  with  his  neighbors, 
both  patriot  and  Tory,  before  sail- 
ing for  England  to  become  a  royal 
pensioner,  his  Boston  estates  con- 
fiscated, and  Hutchinson  Street 
changed  to  Pearl.  '"T  is  said  that 
Washington  rides  in  my  coach  at 
Cambridge,"  he  wrote  some  months 
later,  and  mourned  sincerely  that 
the  land  of  his  birth  was  about  to 
fall  in  ruins,  through  the  zeal  of 
such  rash,  mistaken,  and  worthy 
men  as  Dr.  Joseph  Warren  and  his 
compatriots,  who  had  declared  by 
the  Suffolk  Resolves,1  adopted  in 


1  The  last  Resolve  referred  to  the  unwar- 
ranted building  of  fortifications  on  Boston 
Neck  and  the  "repeated  insults  by  the 
soldiery  to  persons  passing."  The  com- 
mittee appointed  to  wait  on  His  Excellency 
the  governor  (Gage)  to  inform  him  of  this 
matter  for  alarm,  included  Joseph  War- 


Milton 


301 


the  house  of  Daniel  Vose  at  the 
foot  of  Milton  Hill,  that  a  King 
who  violates  chartered  rights 
forfeits  allegiance.  Immediately 
the  Continental  Congress,1  in 
Carpenters'  Hall,  Philadelphia 
(September  17,  1774),  approved 
the  Suffolk  Resolves,  delivered  into 
their  hands  by  Paul  Revere;  in 
the  following  June,  Major-General 
Warren  fell  in  their  defence  at 
Bunker  Hill. 

The  Hutchinson  house  has  been 
known  as  the  "Russell  house" 
since  it  was  purchased  by  the  Hon. 
Jonathan  Russell,  one  of  our  for- 
eign ministers,  and  a  Peace  Com- 
missioner with  John  Q.  Adams, 
Henry  Clay,  Albert  Gallatin,  and 
James  A.  Bayard,  in  concluding 
the  treaty  of  Ghent,  signed  by 
President  Madison  in  the  Octagon 
House,  Washington, — the  house  of 
his  friend,  Colonel  Tayloe,  of  Mt. 
Airy,  Va.,  which  the  Madisons  oc- 
cupied after  the  burning  of  the 


ren,  Esq.,  of  Boston,  Colonel  Ebenezer 
Thayer  of  Braintree,  Captain  Lemuel  Rob- 
inson of  Dorchester,  Capt.  Wm.  Heath  of 
Roxbury,  Dr.  Samuel  Gardner  of  Milton, 
Capt.  Thomas  Aspinwall  of  Brookline,  and 
Nathaniel  Sumner,  Esq.,  of  Dedham. 

1  The  State  House  in  Philadelphia  was 
also  offered  to  the  Continental  Congress, 
but  they  accepted  that  of  the  carpenters, 
to  show  their  respect  for  the  mechanics. 


(Howard  of  the  Sea)  estate.  Watson 
estate.  Henry  P.  Kidder  estate. 
Neil-Babcock  house  (1735).  Alger- 
ine  Corner  (Union  Square).  Madam 
Belcher-Rowe-Payson  house ;  old 
willows,  Willow  Brook,  Adams  St. 
Milton  Cemetery,  made  beautiful  by 
gifts  of  Francis  Amory,  Daniel  L. 
Gibbons,  and  the  Honorable  Elijah 
Vose;  oldest  stone,  a  Wadsworth  of 
Wadsworth  Hill  (1687);  graves  of 
Wendell  Phillips  and  Rimmer  the 
sculptor.  Milton  Academy,  char- 
tered 1787,  opened  1807,  Centre  St. 
and  Randolph  Turnpike.  Milton 
Churches.  Vose  house,  Vose's  Lane 
(1760).  Isaac  D.  Vose-Inches- 
Seth  D.  Whitney  house,  "  Elm  Cor- 
ner," where  Mrs.  A.  D.  T.  Whitney 
wrote  We  Girls  and  other  works. 
Read  house  (1805)  by  the  "  Great 
Oak."  Wadsworth  house  (1766), 
Read's  Lane.  Site  house  Captain 
Samuel  Wadsworth  (killed  at  Sud- 
bury  in  King  Philip's  War),  Wads- 
worth  Hill;  birthplace  of  President 
Benjamin  Wadsworth  of  Harvard 
College  (erected  earliest  monument 
at  Sudbury).  Site  Joseph  Calef 
house  (1760).  Josiah  Webb  house, 
Old  School  St.  Robert  Tucker  house, 
built  before  1681,  oldest  house  in 
Milton;  remodelled  by  Susan  W. 
Clark  after  a  house  in  Goslar, 
Prussia;  Brush  Hill;  Manasseh 
Tucker  was  one  of  four  citizens  who 
purchased  the  Blue  Hill  lands  in 
1711.  Colonel  Nathaniel  Tucker- 
Colonel  H.  S.  Russell  estate.  Old 
Cracker  Bakery  with  ovens  (1801), 
corner  Harland  and  Hillside  streets 
Old  Crehore  estate  near  Paul's 
Bridge.  Babcock  house,  Canton 
Avenue.  Lewis  Davenport-Crehore- 
Sudermeister  house.  Jackson-Mc- 
Lean-George Hollingsworth  house, 
Mattapan.  Park  on  the  Neponset, 
gift  of  Amor  L.  Hollingsworth.  Falls 
at  Mattapan. 

Supplementary :  Teele's  History  of 
Milton,  with  excellent  maps.  Bacon's 
Walks  and  Rides  about  Boston,  con- 
taining "  Walks  through  the  Blue 
Hills."  Baxter's  Park  Guide. 


302  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

White  House.  His  wife,  Mrs.  Lydia  Smith  Russell,  is  affec- 
tionately mentioned  by  Frederika  Bremer  in  her  Homes  of 
the  New  World.1  It  was  Mrs.  Russell  who  planted  the  row 
of  elms  to  replace  Governor  Hutchinson's  sycamores. 

A  fine  mansion  of  1801  is  that  of  the  eminent  Dr.  Amos 
Holbrook,  surgeon  in  1796  of  Colonel  Joseph  Vose's  regi- 
ment, now  the  residence  of  Mrs.  Francis  Cunningham.  The 
lovely  Churchill's  (Vose's,  of  1661)  Lane  was  named  for 
Asaph  Churchill,  the  distinguished  lawyer,  who,  when  a  boy, 
found  himself  adrift,  earning  six  and  one  quarter  cents  a 
day.  He  obtained  Greek  and  Latin  books  in  some  way, 
and  walked  from  the  backwoods  of  Middleborough  to  Cam- 
bridge, boots  in  hand  to  save  wear ;  graduating  with  honors, 
he  married  Mary  Gardner  of  Charlestown,  remarkable  for 
her  beauty,  and  bought  this  Adams  Street  estate  from 
Edward  Hutchinson  Robbins  (Lieutenant-Governor,  1802— 
1807).  Governor  Robbins  removed  to  the  historic  mansion 
at  Brush  Hill,  inherited  by  his  wife,  Elizabeth  Murray, — a 
daughter  of  James  Murray,  the  Loyalist, — since  known  as. 
the  Robbins  house. 

Hard  by  the  Churchill  house  stood  a  little  old  school- 
house,  where  Miss  Ann  Bent  taught  for  a  time,  living  in 
Judge  Robbins's  family;  one  of  her  pupils  was  Anne  Jean 
Robbins,  who  afterwards  married  Judge  Joseph  Lyman  of 

1  Frederika  Bremer  was  invited  to  spend  the  Christmas  holidays  with 
Mrs.  Russell  in  1849.  "Among  the  visitors  who  have  interested  me  are 
Mrs.  Russell  and  her  daughter  Ida.  Ida  was  born  in  Sweden,  where  her 
father  was  charge  d'affaires  many  years  ago,  and  although  she  left  the 
country  as  a  child,  she  has  retained  an  affection  for  Sweden  and  the 
Swedes.  She  is  a  handsome  and  agreeable  young  lady.  Her  mother 
looks  like  goodness  itself.  '  I  cannot  promise  you  much  that  is  entertain- 
ing,' said  she  in  inviting  me  to  her  house,  '  but  I  will  nurse  you.'  ...  I 
promised  to  go  there  on  Christmas  eve  which  they  will  keep  in  Northern 
fashion,  with  Christmas  pine-twigs,  Christmas-candles  and  Christmas- 
boxes,  and,  as  I  perceive,  great  ceremony.  But  more  than  all  the  Christ- 
mas-candles, and  the  Christmas-boxes  do  I  need — a  little  rest." 


Milton 


303 


Northampton.  The  Recollections  of  My  Mother,  by  her 
daughter,  Mrs.  Lesley,  appeals  to  one  as  few  biographies  do, 
portraying  a  rare  woman  in  the  environment  of  the  cul- 
tured New  England  home  of  fifty  years  ago.  Miss  Ann 
Bent,  like  Mrs.  Lyman,  of  fine  Scotch  ancestry,1  was  pos- 


From  the  VoseFarm,  Brush  Hill,  is  the  most  beautiful  Vista  of  the  Blue  Hills. 

sessed  of  an  original  and  noble  character  and  loved  by 
every  one  who  knew  her ;  like  Doily  Madison,  she  never  for- 
got the  little  amenities  of  life.  Miss  Bent  for  many  years 
assisted  her  nieces  by  means  of  her  store  on  Marlborough 

1  Mrs.  Lyman's  ancestor,  James  Murray,  was  of  the  Murrays  of  Fala- 
hill.  The  "Outlaw"  Murray  was  High  Sheriff  of  Ettrick  Forest,  a 
Murray  inheritance  until  the  time  of  Sir  John  Murray,  Knight,  of 
Philiphaugh.  Miss  Ann  Bent's  great-great-grandfather  was  Dr.  George 
Middleton,  Principal  of  King's  College,  Aberdeen. 


304  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

(old  Washington)  Street,  near  Winter.  Many  Boston 
people  have  delightful  reminiscences  of  this  great-hearted 
woman,  dispensing  hospitality,  sympathy,  humor,  and  the 
most  charming  French  importations  at  the  same  moment. 
Miss  Bent  attended  Dr.  Channing's  Federal  Street  Church. 
In  the  possession  of  his  niece,  Miss  Elizabeth  Channing  of 
Milton,  the  author  of  several  books  for  children,  is  a  fine 
portrait  of  Dr.  Channing  by  Gilbert  Stuart. 

Across  the  road,  beyond  Governor  Belcher's  mile-stone 
(8  miles  to  B.  town  house,  the  lower  way  1734}  and  the  John 
Murray  Forbes  estate,  the  residence  of  J.  Malcolm  Forbes, 
in  the  house  which  stands  on  the  site  of  the  old  smithy, 
lived  another  of  the  memorable  women  of  the  time,  Mrs. 
Mary  L.  Ware,  the  wife  of  the  Rev.  Henry  Ware,  Jr.,  of 
Cambridge. 

Farther  south  stood  Provincial  Treasurer  Foye's  man- 
sion (the  Theodore  R.  Glover  house  is  on  the  site),  shaded 
by  a  grand  elm  under  which  George  Whitefield  preached, 
being  refused  the  meeting-house.  The  gale  which  shattered 
Minot's  Light  in  April  (1851)  flung  the  tree  across  the  road 
in  such  a  manner  that  Daniel  Webster,  happening  by  with 
his  wife,  was  compelled  to  turn  his  chaise  about  and  take 
the  road  to  Boston  by  Milton  Cemetery.  It  must  have 
been  a  disappointment  to  lose  the  drive  over  Milton  Hill, 
for  wherever  a  fine  prospect  promised,  there  Mr.  Webster 
chose  his  road.  You  may  be  sure  he  drew  rein  by  the 
Governor  Hutchinson  house,  just  as  he  invariably  did  at 
the  mile-stone  on  the  Back  Road  in  Dover,  N.  H.,  where 
every  one,  following  his  well-known  custom,  halts  to  drink 
in  the  marvellous  view  of  Great  Bay. 

Governor  Jonathan  Belcher  built  a  country-seat  by  the 
willow-bordered  brook  at  the  eastern  foot  of  Milton  Hill,1 

1  Willow  Brook  is  one  mile  and  a  half  by  Adams  Street  from  Milton 
Lower  Mills,  and  half  a  mile  from  East  Milton  Centre. 


Governor  Belcher 


305 


on  the  grant  of  John  Holman,  who  lived  here  on  his  forty- 
three  acres  when  only  a  bridle-path  crossed  the  brook.  After 
the  Governor  came,  great  were  the  ceremonious  visitings 
and  feasts  by  the  willows.  He  ordered  the  soldiers  of  the 
Province  to  grade  his  avenue  to  such  perfection  that  from 
the  road  the  people  might  catch  the  glint  of  his  shoe-buckles 


Madam  Belcher  House,  built  1776.       Purchased  by  John  Rows,  in  1781. 
Adams  Street,  Milton. 

as  he  stood  on  the  threshold  of  the  new  mansion  which 
should  take  the  place  of  his  "little  cottage."  Yonder  lane 
was  the  beginning  of  Belcher  Avenue,  but  the  Governor 
was  appointed  to  rule  New  Jersey  (1747)  ere  it  was  com- 
pleted. 

In  the  eventful  year  1776,  when  loyalists  and    patriots 
alike  already  longed  for  peace,  and  that  "dreadful  distem- 


306  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

per, "  smallpox,1  was  again  going  through  the  town  of  Bos- 
ton, Madam  Belcher  and  her  daughter  saw  their  home  here 
burn  to  the  ground ;  they  were  warmly  welcomed  to  Brush 
Hill  by  Mrs.  Dorothy  Forbes  and  her  sister,  Elizabeth 
Murray.  Their  aunt,  the  high-spirited  and  courageous  Mrs. 
Inman,  who  had  not  deserted  her  self-imposed  charge  of 
the  precious  Inman  farm  and  stock  in  Cambridge,  to  fly 
with  her  servants  to  Brush  Hill  until  the  cannonading  began 
at  Bunker  Hill,2  now  was  shut  up  in  the  besieged  city  of 
Boston  with  Mr.  Inman  and  other  Tories,  who  saw  their 
families  only  at  the  lines  and  by  leave  of  the  commander-in- 
chief,  with  General  Howe's  consent.  In  a  letter  of  Feb- 
ruary 14,  1776,  Mr.  Murray  wrote  to  his  daughter,  Dorothy 
Forbes,  and  Elizabeth  Murray: 

I  could  not  with  propriety  ask  leave  to  go  to  the  Lines 
yesterday  .  .  . .  when  I  heard  of  your  being  at  the  Ren- 
dezvous I  was  grieved  for  my  having  been  so  much  out  of 
Luck.  I  am  charmed  that  you  have  the  happiness  of  get- 
ting Madam  and  Mrs.  Belcher  under  your  Roof.  You  now 
live  to  some  purpose,  indeed,  when  you  have  a  house  and 

1  The  earliest  recollection  of  Josiah  Quincy  ("President")  is  connected 
with  these  exciting  events:     "My  grandfather's  carriage  was  the  last 
which  Gage  permitted  to  leave  town.     It  was  my  lot  to  be  with  my 
mother  in  that  carriage.     .     .     .     The  small-pox  was  at  that  day  the 
terror  of  the  country.     At  the  line  which  separates  Boston  and  Roxbury 
there  were  troops  stationed.     .     .     .     The  carriage  was  stopped  and  its 
inmates  made  to  enter  the  sentry-box  successively.     On  each  side  of  the 
box  was  a  small  platform  round  which  each  was  compelled  to  walk  until 
our  clothes  were  fumigated  with  fumes  of  brimstone  cast  upon  a  body 
of  coals." 

2  Mrs.  Forbes  of  Brush  Hill  was  in  Cambridge  on  the  morning  of  the 
battle  of  Bunker  Hill,  and  she  related  that,  "unable  to  endure  her  fright, 
she  made  a  fifteen-year-old  boy  harness  a  horse  to  her  Aunt  Inman's 
chaise  and  drive  her  to  Brush  Hill,  the  noise  of  the  firing  causing  her  to 
stop  her  ears  all  the  way." — Letters  of  James  Murray,  Loyalist.     Edited 
by  Nina  Moore  Tiffany,  assisted  by  Susan  T.  Lesley.     With  Biographical 
Notice  of  Hon.  James  Murray  Robbins,  by  Hon.  Roger  Wolcott. 


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308  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

hearts  for  an  Asylum  to  such  merit  in  Distress.  If  any 
Necessary  is  wanted  for  these  Ladies  which  this  town  can 
afford,  I  have  authority  to  say  it  will  be  permitted  to  be 
sent  out. 

Not  long  after,  James  Murray  became  a  refugee,  and 
writes  from  New  York  and,  later,  from  England ;  he  dared 
not  return,  and  never  saw  them  again.  Had  Mrs.  Inman's 
plan  that  they  should  all  settle  on  Mr.  John  Rowe's  land  at 
St.  John's,  been  carried  out,  Mr.  Murray  might  have  been 
always  with  his  daughters  and  sister,  Mrs.  Inman. 

Another  of  the  invaluable  letters  included  in  the  box  of 
papers  of  James  Murray,  Loyalist,  which  lay  untouched  in 
the  Brush  Hill  garret  until  put  into  the  hands  of  his  great- 
granddaughter,  Mrs.  Lesley,  is  written  by  the  lively  and 
witty  "E.  F.,"  on  April  17,  '76.  It  relates  her  experiences 
in  Mrs.  Inman's  house  after  Washington  left  Cambridge: 

Only  imagine  to  yourself  two  unhappy  females,  from 
some  high  misdemeanor  driven  from  the  Society  of  the 
world  and  every  social  pleasure  into  a  wilderness  surrounded 
not  by  wild  beasts,  but  by  savage  men.  .  .  .  Miss 
Murray  and  I  are  in  Mr.  Inman's  house  '  just  as  it  was  left 
by  the  soldiery,  without  any  one  necessary  about  us,  except 
a  bed  to  lodge  on  &  Patrick  for  a  protector  &  servant,  in 
constant  fear  that  some  outrage  will  be  committed  if  it  is 
once  discovered  that  one  of  us  is  connected  with  Mr.  Inman, 
to  prevent  which  everything  is  done  in  my  name  .  .  . 
you  would  be  really  diverted,  could  you  give  a  peep  when 
Mrs.  Inman  visits  us,  to  see  Betsey  and  I  resigning  our 
broken  chairs  &  teacups,  and  dipping  the  water  out  of  an 
iron  skellet  into  the  pot  as  cheerfully  as  if  we  were  using  a 
silver  urn.  I  cannot  tell  what  it  is  owing  to,  unless  it  is 
seeing  Mrs.  I in  such  charming  spirits,  that  prevents  our 

1  Afterwards  confiscated.  The  Inman  house  stood  on  the  site  of  City 
Hall,  Cambridge. 


War  Troubles 


309 


being  truly  miserable.  Tell  her  friends  in  England  not  to 
lament  her  being  in  America  at  this  period,  for  she  is  now 
in  her  proper  element,  having  an  opportunity  to  exert  her 
benevolence  for  those  who  have  neither  Spirits  or  ability  to 
do  for  themselves.  No  (other)  woman  could  do  as  she  does 
with  impunity,  for  she  is  above  the  little  fears  and  weak- 


Uoosicwhisick  Lake  or  Houghton's  Pond,  Blue  Hills  Reservation,  Milton. 

nesses  which  are  inseparable  companions  of  most  of  our  sex. 
Oh  that  imagination  could  replace  the  wood  lot,  the  wil- 
lows round  the  pond,  the  locust-trees !  but  in  vain  to  wish  it, 
every  beauty  of  art  or  nature,  every  elegance  which  it  cost 
years  of  care  and  toil  to  bring  to  perfection,  is  laid  low.  It 
looks  like  an  unfrequented  desert,  and  this  farm  is  an 
epitome  of  all  Cambridge. 


Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

Madam  and  Mrs.  Belcher  left  Brush  Hill,  intending 
to  rebuild,  but  no  workmen  could  be  procured,  and 
they  were  obliged  to  use  the  coach-house  as  a  dining- 
room  and  "the  Fowl  house  for  their  bed-chamber,  but 
the  old  lady  looks  majestic  even  there,  and  dresses  with 
as  much  elegance  as  if  she  was  in  a  palace"  (letter  of 
E.  F.  from  Brush  Hill).  Soon  after  Madam  Belcher's 
house  was  completed  it  was  purchased  by  John  Rowe, 
merchant,  of  Boston.  Boston  still  has  "  Rowe's  Wharf," 
and  "  Rowe's  pasture  "  once  covered  Bedford  and  Kingston 
streets. 

Mr.  Rowe  was  an  intimate  friend  of  James  Smith,  a 
warden  of  King's  Chapel,  who  built  the  Brush  Hill  house 
and  married  James  Murray's  sister,  afterwards  Mrs.  Ralph 
Inman.  His  sugar  house,  next  to  the  Brattle  Street  Church, 
is  celebrated  as  having  been  occupied  by  Colonel  Dalrymple's 
regiment,  from  which  went  forth  Captain  Preston's  company 
to  the  Boston  Massacre.  John  Rowe  dines  frequently  with 
"  Jemy"  Smith;  indeed,  Mr.  Rowe  dined  with  from  ten  to 
thirty  persons  every  day,  whether  at  home  in  Boston  or 
abroad.  He  knew  everybody  and  everybody  knew  him. 
Dinner,  usually  at  noon,  was  not  then  a  complex  function 
of  courses ;  turtle  or  a  haunch  of  veal  constituting  the  prin- 
cipal dish,  followed  by  sweets.  On  business  or  pleasure, 
Mr.  Rowe  dined  sooner  or  later  at  every  notable  tavern  in 
the  colony  in  most  distinguished  company,  and  we  could 
wish  that  he  might  have  been  as  fond  of  jotting  down  spicy 
details  in  his  Diary  as  Judge  Sewall  was,  instead  of  being 
as  sparing  in  comment  as  Washington.  Concerning  the 
missing  one  of  the  fourteen  volumes,  in  possession  of  his 
great-grandniece,  Mrs.  Cunningham,  Mr.  Rowe  notes  on  a 
flyleaf, "  from  June  to  December — is  mislaid — or  taken  out  of 
my  store."  This  contained  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill.  His 
favorite  diversion  was  fishing.  On  the  ipth  of  July,  1765, 


The  Great  Blue  Hill  311 

he  set  out  for  Mrs.  Pratt 's  at  Milton,  who  resided  opposite 
the  Foye  house. 

20  Saturday.  Very  lazy  this  morning.  Mr  Calef  the 
Rev?  Mr.  Auchmooty  and  myself  went  to  a  pond  [Ponka- 
pog]  beyond  the  Blue  Hill  and  put  up  at  Mr.  Joseph  Gooch, 
went  a  fishing  had  very  fine  Diversion,  the  Weather  very 
hot.  Came  from  thence  to  Mr.  James  Smith  [at  Brush 
Hill]  and  dined  with  him  and  Wife  the  Rev.  Mr.  Winslow 
the  Rev.  Mr  Auchmooty  and  his  Daughter  Bella,  Mr.  Rob' 


7  he  Rotch  Meteorological  Observatory  on  Summit  of  the  Great  Blue  Hill, 

erected  by  A.  Lawrence  Rotch,  Esq.     The  Blue  Hill  Observatory 

co-operates  in  Observations  with  the  Astronomwal  Observatory 

of  Harvard  University. 

Auchmooty  and  Wife,  Mr.  Rob.  Temple  &  wife  [probably  of 
Ten  Hills  Farm,  Medford]  Mr.  Inman  &  Mrs.  Rowe,  Mrs. 
Prat,  Miss  Polly  Overing  and  Miss  Bella  Prat  and  Mr  Sam 
Calef,  came  home  and  spent  the  evening  with  Mr.  Inman, 


3^2  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

Mrs.  Rowe,  and  Suky.1  [Susannah  Inman,2  who  became  the 
wife  of  Captain  Linzee  of  the  British  man-of-war  Falcon]. 

To  Mr.  Smith  we  owe  the  fine  Dutch  elms  in  front  of  the 
Unitarian  Church,  Milton,  which  were  offshoots  of  those 
propagated  at  his  Brush  Hill  nurseries,  being  imported  by 
him  after  admiring  the  elms  in  Brompton  Park,  London. 
Mr.  Gilbert  Deblois  begged  some  to  set  out  in  front  of  the 
Granary,  near  his  house  on  Tremont  Street,  promising  in 
return  to  name  his  little  son  for  Mr.  Smith.  They  were 
familiarly  known  as  the  "Paddock  Elms,"  because  Mr. 
Paddock  "  kept  his  eye  on  them  "  for  Mr.  Deblois.  .  .  . 

The  remarkable  State  Recreation  Park  of  the  Blue  Hills 
covers  about  four  thousand  acres,  and  these  hills  "  are  the 
greatest  on  the  Atlantic  coast  of  the  United  States,  from 
Mount  Agamenticus  in  southern  Maine  to  the  Mexican 
boundary  at  the  mouth  of  the  Rio  Grande.  One  of  the 
loveliest  regions,  that  of  Hoosicwhisick,  or  Houghton's 
Pond,  may  be  easily  seen  by  riding  over  the  Randolph  Turn- 
pike from  Milton  Lower  Mills,  and  leaving  the  car  at  Hill- 
side Street  to  walk  by  Hancock  Hill  (from  which  Governor 
Hancock  cut  his  wood  for  the  poor  of  Boston  during  the 
severe  winter  of  1780)  to  Ralph  Houghton's  Pond.  Here 
is  a  striking  view  of  the  bold  face  of  the  Great  Blue  Hill  and 
of  the  Rotch  Observatory.  What  peaceful  seclusion  must 
Ralph  Houghton  have  enjoyed  in  his  homestead  by  Hoosic- 
whisick after  life  in  England,  where  he  fought  for  Cromwell 
against  Charles  I.,  notwithstanding  that  he  had  been 
knighted  by  the  King!  Crossing  the  sea,  he  sought  Lancas- 

1  From  the  original  manuscript,  by  permission  of  Mrs.  Anne  Rowe  Cun- 
ningham, who  is  now  editing  The  Diary  and  Letters  of  John  Rowe,  to  be 
"Printed,  not  published,"  by  W.  B.  Clarke  Co. 

2  Susannah  Inman's  mother  was  the  twin  sister  of  Mrs.  John  Rowe. 
Portraits  of  Mrs.  Rowe  and  Mrs.  Inman,  by  Copley,  are  owned  by  Mrs. 
Charles  Amory,  Jr.,  and  C.  W.  Amory,  Esq.;    the  Blackburn  portrait  of 
John  Rowe,  by  Dr.  Joseph  Rowe  Webster. 


Milton 


313 


ter,  Mass.,  and  after  the  destruction  by  the  Indians,  came 
thither. 

Not  far  from  the  Readville  Station,  at  "Great  Fowl 
Meadows,"  you  pass  over  Paul's  Bridge,  rudely  built  by 
Farmer  Hubbard  in  1662,  on  your  road  to  the  northwest 
approach  of  the  Great  Blue  Hill,  by  way  of  Brush  Hill  and 


Shepherd  with  Dogs  and  Pike, — "  long  slender  tapering  up  like  a  lance  into 

the  air," — tending  Sheep  in  a  Meadow  on  the  Estate  of  Augustus 

Hemenway,  Canton. 

Blue  Hill  avenues  and  the  Wolcott  Pines.  Along  Canton 
avenue  are  beautiful  estates,  ancient  and  modern.  Many 
Davenports  lived  a  hundred  years  ago  in  this  vicinity,  and 
the  old  Augustus  Hemenway  house,  with  its  fine  old  pine- 
path,  one  of  the  homes  of  Mrs.  Lewis  Cabot,  was  in  the  last 
century  the  Nathaniel  Davenport  place.  Here  is  the  A. 


3H  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

Lawrence  Rotch  estate,  the  Governor  Roger  Wolcott  estate, 
and  the  J.  Huntington  Wolcott  place ;  the  celebrated  Wol- 
cott Pines  are  now  a  part  of  the  Blue  Hill  Reservation,  as 
are  the  Grossman  Pines,  where  old-style  picnics  are  the 
vogue.  To  reach  the  old  Grossman  house  from  Mattapan 
(here  are  the  early  Hollingsworth  places  and  a  Park  on 
the  Neponset,  the  gift  of  Amor  L.  Hollingsworth)  follow  the 
beautiful  Brush  Hill  Road  over  Tucker  and  Robbins  streets 
to  Canton  Avenue,  thence  by  a  lane  to  the  Pines.  The  view 
from  Hoosicwhisick  is  rivalled  by  that  from  Cherry  Hill  on 
the  Canton  Pass.  Cherry  Tavern,  of  old  famous  for  cherry 
parties,  became  the  country  house  of  Dr.  Samuel  Cabot, 
now  owned  by  Dr.  Arthur  Cabot.  Hard  by,  the  Rev. 
Peter  Thacher,  a  founder  of  Unquity-quisset,  preached  a 
monthly  discourse  to  the  Punkapoag  Indians.  They  re- 
quested that  Colonel  John  Quincy,  for  whom  Quincy  was 
named,  should  be  appointed  their  guardian. 


John  Rowe, 
his  Fire  Bucket. 


QUINCY,  1633-1640-1792 

"Who  cometh  over  the  hills, 

Her  garments  with  morning  sweet, 
The  dance  of  a  thousand  rills, 

Making  music  before  her  feet  f     .     .     . 

Freedom,  O,  fairest  of  all 

The  daughter  of  Time  and  Thought.1' 

LOWELL. 

(Ode  read  at  the  One  Hundredth  Anni- 
versary of  the  Fight  at  Concord.) 

UINCY,  old  Braintree's  North  Precinct,  brings 
to  mind  numberless  images  of  patriotism 
and  sentiment.  First  appears  the  dauntless 
champion  of  the  New  World,  Captain  John 
Smith,  parleying  with  a  curious,  friendly  race 
in  the  shadow  of  Mos-wachuset  Mount ;  this 
"paradise"  satisfies  alike  his  passion  for  dis- 
covery and  his  love  of  the  beautiful.  In 
1621,  see  the  shallop  of  Standish  of  Standish,  who  comes  to 
treat  with  Chickatabut  in  the  Massachusetts  Fields;  his 
warriors  have  'been  swept  away  by  a  mighty  pestilence,  and 
the  Indian  corn-fields  are  sere  and  waste.  The  Pilgrims  land 
near  Neponset's  m.^uth,  at  the  romantic  headland  Squan- 
tum.1  They  breakfast  off  a  pile  of  lobsters  on  the  shore,  later 

1  Tisquantum,  or  Squanto,  was  the  herald  of  Massasoit  to  New  Ply- 
mouth. He  saw  at  once  their  starving  plight  and  "went  out  at  noone  to 
fish  for  Eeles"  for  them.  Governor  Bradford  says  that  he  was  the 
"spetiall  instrument  sent  by  God.  He  directed  them  how  to  plant  their 
corne,  where  to  fish,  and  was  also  their  pilott  to  bring  them  to  unknown 
places  for  their  profitt  .  .  .  and  never  left  them  till  he  dyed." 
Tisqxiantum  was  the  only  living  member  of  all  the  Patuxet  tribe.  He 
had  been  carried  off  to  England  by  Captain  Hunt  before  the  plague,  and 
found  a  home  with  Gorges;  Captain  Dermer  brought  him  back  to  Ply 
mouth,  speaking  English  and  with  English  habits. 

315 


QUINCY 

LANDMARKS:  Birthplace  of  John 
Adams  (1681-1700);  restored  by 
the  Adams  Chapter,  D.  R.,  and 
opened  to  the  public  after  a  new 
"  Hanging  of  the  Crane."  "  The 
Cottage,"  birthplace  of  John  Quincy 
Adams,  restored  by  Quincy  Histori- 
cal Society;  in  summer  the  houses 
are  open  from  2  to  5.  President's 
Lane,  opened  by  John  Adams  to  his 
cow  pastures,  Goff  St.  Christ 

Church  (1728-1874).  Church  of 
England  services  held  in  1684  at 
Braintree.  Hancock  Cemetery,  old- 
est stone,  1666.  Leonard  Vassall- 
President  John  Adams  mansion 
(1730-1787),  Adams  St.  Furnace 


Chief  Justice  Thomas  B. 
house,    Elm    St.,    home    of 


316  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

paying  an  Indian  woman  for  them,  who  conducted  them  to 

the  Sachem's  wigwam. 

In  1625  Captain  Wollaston 
enters,  and  like  Gorges  at  Wessa- 
gusset,  finding  the  climate  uncon- 
genial, sets  out  for  Virginia  leaving 
Tom  Morton  and  his  boon  com- 
panions on  Mount  Wollaston.  The 
captain  away,  the  mice  did  play  on 
Merry-Mount, — and  such  merry, 
merry  mice  were  these  that  they 
fell  into  disgrace  with  both  Ply- 
mouth and  the  Bay,  and  Captain 
Myles  Standish  was  forced  again  to 
voyage  thither  to  rid  New  England 
of  a  reckless  adventurer,  who, 
moreover,  was  instructing  the  In- 
dians in  the  use  of  firearms  and 
' '  fire-water. ' '  Morton  retaliated 
by  satirizing  Standish  as  "  Captain 
Shrimp."  Blackstone  of  Beacon 
Hill  was  assessed  twelve  shillings 
toward  the  expense  of  arresting 
Morton,  and  Governor  Endicott 
himself  hewed  down  the  May-pole. 
Thereafter  nobody  wished  to 
live  south  of  the  Neponset  until 
some  gentlemen  who  had  arrived 
with  Thomas  Hooker  and  John 
Cotton,  accepted  allotments: 
Coddington  and  Edmund  Quincy,. 
the  Rev.  John  Wilson,  the  Rev. 
John  Wheelwright,  and  Atherton 
Hough ;  William  Hutchinson's 


Brook. 
Adams 

Elizabeth  C.  Adams,  who  witnessed 
the  last  meeting  of  Lafayette  and 
John  Adams.  Miller  place;  Dr. 
William  Everett  house.  Brackett 
homestead,  Brackett  St.  Samuel 
Brackett  house  (1827).  Deacon 
Savil  house.  Beale  house.  Old 
Quincy  homestead  and  Hon.  Peter 
Butler  house  (1633-1705);  Wil- 
liam Coddington's  home-lot  by 
Black's  Creek  on  Quincy  Brook, 
birthplace  of  Dorothy  Q. ;  Judge 
Sewall  slept  in  "  the  chamber  next 
the  Brooke  "  when  visiting  "  Unckle 
Quinsey."  Charles  F.  Adams,  Sr., 
mansion.  President's  Hill.  Colonel 
Josiah  Quincy  mansion  (1770). 
Quincy  mansion  (1828),  now  Quincy 
Mansion  School.  Merry-Mount 

Park,  gift  of  C.  F.  Adams,  the 
younger.  Sachem's  Brook,  bound- 
ary of  Quincy  Grant.  Crane  Me- 
morial Hall  (Richardson),  contains 
Thomas  Crane  Public  Library. 
Adams  Academy,  on  site  birthplace  of 
John  Hancock.  Woodward  Institute. 
Public  Park,  gift  of  Henry  H.  Faxon. 
Memorial  Cairn  on  Squantum  head- 
land, corner-stone  laid  by  Charles 
Francis  Adams  and  Mrs.  William 
Lee,  Regent,  D.  R.  Old  shipyard, 


chu sctis  launched  (1789),  national 
event;  lines  drafted  by  Captain 
William  Hackett  of  Amesbury, 
builder  of  the  Alliance  /  colors 
hoisted  by  Captain  Amasa  Delano; 
shipped  three  crews  before  finally 
securing  plucky  Yankee  crew,  be- 
cause of  Moll  Pitcher's  prophecy 
that  she  would  go  to  "  Davy  Jones's 
locker." 


The  Quincy  Mansion  3X7 

acres  are  now  Wollaston  Heights.   Quincy  Point-     Deacon  Thomas>s 

shipyard,  Germantown.     The  Massa* 

His  wife,  Anne,  was  that  woman  of 
wit  who  caused  so  much  trouble  in 
Boston  and  abroad  by  her  mag- 
netic exhortations  to  a  more  lib- 
eral Covenant  of  Grace,  and  par- 
ticularly by  her  criticism  of  each 
Sunday's  sermon;  she  had  been 
an  admirer  of  Rev.  John  Cotton's  preaching,  but  was  an- 
tagonistic to  the  stiff-necked  Rev.  John  Wilson,  he  who 
read  her  sentence  of  expulsion  from  the  First  Church  in 
Boston.  We  shall  see  her  next  in  Rhode  Island. 

Colonel  Edmund  Quincy  (the  son  of  Edmund  the  "immi- 
grant ")  built  the  Quincy  mansion,  where  "Dorothy  Q."  * 
was  born.  "My  Dorothy,"  Holmes  calls  her,  contemplat- 
ing her  portrait  in  his  study : 

"Grandmother's  mother:  her  age  I  guess 
Thirteen  summers  or  something  less.    .    .    . 
Look  not  on  her  with  eye  of  scorn, 
Dorothy  Q.  was  a  lady  born!" 

"  My  Dorothy"  was  demure  and  domestic  and  devoted  to 
her  garden,  drying  her  laces  on  the  old  box  borders,  and  at 
fifteen  the  right  hand  of  her  mother,  owing  to  her  sister's 
marriage  to  John  Wendell.  Hancock's  Dorothy  was  a  be- 
witching coquette,  the  youngest  of  the  five  beautiful  daugh- 
ters of  "Squire  Edmund,"  who  removed  here  from  Summer 
Street,  Boston,  when  she  was  two  years  old.2 

It  was  a  piquant  household  in  which  pretty  Dorothy  grew 
up,  her  sisters  having  scores  of  admirers,  especially  "the 

1  The  daughter  of  "Dorothy  Q."  Jackson  married  Judge  Oliver  Wen- 
dell.    Their  grandson  was  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes,  and  his  son  is  Chief 
Justice  O.  W.  Holmes. 

2  Where  American  Independence  Began,  by  Daniel  Munro  Wilson,  a 
resident  of  this  older  Quincy  mansion  in  recent  years. 


318  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

pert,  sprightly,  and  gay  Esther,"  as  John  Adams  calls  her; 
he  prefers  the  society  of  the  ' '  bookish ' '  Hannah  :  Quincy, 
her  cousin,  and  writes  in  his  Diary  of  his  devoted  friend, 
Jonathan  Sewall  that  his  "courtship  of  Esther  Quincy 
brought  him  to  Brain  tree  commonly  on  Saturdays,  where  he 
remained  till  Monday. ' '  William  Greenleaf  was  the  accepted 
suitor  of  Sarah  Quincy,  and  at  General  Greenleaf 's  home  in 
Lancaster  Squire  Quincy  took  refuge  in  1775.  In  honor  of 
Dorothy's  approaching  wedding  to  John  Hancock,  it  is  said 
that  one  of  the  rooms  was  hung  with  odd  Chinese  paper, 
but  fortunes  of  war  upset  the  best  of  plans,  and  her  wedding 
came  about  very  quietly  at  the  Thaddeus  Burr  house  in 
Fairfield,  owing  to  the  proscription  on  Hancock's  head. 
Dorothy  was  ever  "coy  and  hard  to  please,"  and  poor  Han- 
cock was  obliged  to  ask  the  favor  of  a  watch  string, — "I 
wear  them  out  so  fast,  I  want  some  little  thing  of  your 
doing."  Would  that  the  President  of  the  Continental  Con- 
gress and  worshipful  Governor  of  Massachusetts  had  not 
begged  in  vain  for  longer  epistles  from  his  sweet  Dorothy  Q ! 
"I  have  ask'd  million  questions  &  not  an  answer  to  one." 
Quincy  had  many  distinguished  correspondents, — educa- 
tors and  authors.  John  Adams  has  left  us  our  best  journals 
of  the  Revolution,  and  we  would  not  lose  one  line  of  Mrs. 

1  Daughter  of  Colonel  Josiah  Quincy,  who  lived  in  the  "Hancock  par- 
sonage" until  it  was  burned,  erecting  the  later  Quincy  mansion  in  1770. 
John  Hancock  was  living  in  Boston  with  his  uncle,  Thomas  Hancock,  on 
Beacon  Street.  Another  spacious  Quincy  house  near  by,  now  the  Quincy 
Mansion  School,  was  built  in  1828  by  Josiah  Quincy,  grandfather  of  the 
Hon.  Josiah  P.  Quincy,  Mayor  of  Boston,  1896-97.  In  his  Boston  home 
hangs  a  Copley  of  the  first  Josiah,  with  the  heavy  lace  ruffles  of  his  time. 
On  the  site  of  the  parsonage,  John  Hancock's  birthplace,  stands  Adams 
Academy.  Famous  masters  were  Dr.  William  R.  Dimmock,  Dr.  William 
Everett,  and  Mr.  William  Royall  Tyler.  The  celebrated  "Qxiincy  sys- 
tem" was  established  by  Charles  Francis  Adams,  the  historian.  The 
home  of  Professor  Henry  Adams  of  Washington,  author  of  the  History  of 
the  United  States,  is  in  Washington.  The  third  Charles  Francis  Adams 
is  Treasurer  of  Harvard. 


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320  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

Adams's  letters,  even  to  her  longings  for  pins  at  twenty 
shillings  the  paper. 

The  country  house  of  Leonard  Vassall,  a  West  Indian 
planter,  the  home  of  Mrs.  John  Quincy  Adams,  was  pur- 
chased after  the  war  by  John  Adams,  and  Vassall's  St. 
Domingo  mahogany  room,  panelled  to  the  ceiling,  remains. 
In  the  east,  or  "ceremony  room,"  President  John  Adams 
celebrated  his  golden  wedding;  and  also  his  son,  President 
John  Quincy  Adams,  and  Charles  Francis  Adams,  our  Min- 
ister to  Great  Britain.  The  Vassalls,  Apthorps,  Cleverlys, 
Borlands,  and  other  gentry  were  Church  of  England  folk. 
Judge  Sewall  refers  to  the  old  Christ  Church  society  on 
"  Christmas-day,  1727,  Shops  open,  and  people  come  to  Town 
with  Hoop-poles,  Hay,  wood  etc.  Mr.  Miller  keeps  the  day 
in  his  New  church  at  Braintey;  people  flock  thither."  In 
1773,  its  rector,  the  Rev.  Edward  Winslow,  found  it  no 
longer  safe  to  read  the  prayer  for  the  king,  and  took  refuge 
in  New  York.  Samuel  Quincy  was  the  only  other  loyalist 
expatriated,  although  the  town  was  looked  upon  as  a  "Tory 
hot-bed."  ' 

As  war-times  waxed  hot,  Colonel  Quincy  2  and  General 
Joseph  Palmer  were  obliged  to  close  their  glass-works,  the 
first  in  America,  and  one  may  imagine  with  what  a  sigh  of 
relief  Colonel  Quincy  wrote  with  his  diamond  on  his  attic 
pane  the  significant  legend,  "October  i6th,  1775,  Governor 
Gage  sailed  to  England  with  a  fair  wind."  But  Braintree's 
suspense  continued  for  months,  and  Colonel  Quincy  anx- 
iously watched  the  port  from  his  attic,  reporting  to  Washing- 
ton; while  Abigail  Adams  climbed  Penn's  Hill,  whenever 

1  Three  Episodes  of  Massachusetts  History,  by  Charles  Francis  Adams. 

2  In  the  later  Quincy  mansion  the  "Franklin  room"  recalls   Colonel 
Quincy 's  warm  friendship  with  the  philosopher,  begun  when  he  was  on 
his  mission  to  Philadelphia,  sent  by  Governor  Shirley  to  induce  Pennsyl- 
vania to  unite  with  Massachusetts  in  placing  a  fortress  near  Ticonderoga. 


Perm's  Hill,  Quincy 


321 


she  could  snatch  a  moment  from  caring  for  soldiers  and 
refugees,  to  review  the  situation  and  then  write  late  into  the 
night,  in  order  to  keep  her  husband  posted  at  Philadelphia. 
The  people  momentarily  looked  for  an  attack  from  floating 
batteries,  and  a  fortnight  after  the  battle  of  Lexington  the 
seacoast  was  so  alarmed  that  the  ladies  of  the  Quincy  family 


The  Adams  '"Cottage." 
Birthplace  of  John  Quincy  Adams. 

took  refuge  over  night  with  Mrs.  Adams  at  the  foot  of  Penn's 
Hill.1  In  March,  just  before  the  evacuation,  Mrs.  Adams 
writes : 

1  On  Penn's  Hill  is  a  cairn  (see  initial  letter)  with  the  inscription: 
From  this  spot,  with  her  son  John  Quincy  Adams,  then  a  boy  of  seven,  at  her 
side,  Abigail  Adams  watched  the  smoke  of  burning  Charlestown  while  listening 
to  the  guns  of  Bunker  Hill,  Saturday,  June  17,  777  5.  Erected  by  the  Adams 
Chapter  of  Quincy,  of  the  Daughters  of  the  Revolution,  Mrs.  N.  V.Titus, 


322  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

"From  Penn's  Hill  we  have  a  view  of  the  largest  fleet 
ever  seen  in  America  .  .  .  upwards  of  a  hundred  and 
seventy  sail.  They  look  like  a  forest  .  .  .  many  people 
are  elated  at  their  quitting  Boston,  I  confess  I  do  not  feel 
so,  't  is  only  lifting  a  burden  from  one  shoulder  to  the  other 
perhaps  less  able  or  less  willing  to  support  it  ...  every 
foot  of  ground  which  they  obtain  now  they  must  fight  for, 
and  may  they  purchase  it  at  the  Bunker  Hill  price!  " 

Josiah  Quincy,  son  of  the  "  Boston  Cicero  "  and  President 
of  Harvard  College,  prided  himself  on  his  successful  farming 
experiments  '  on  this  inherited  estate.  President  Monroe, 
after  dining  with  Mr.  Adams,  paid  Mr.  Quincy  a  visit,  their 
political  differences  apparently  forgotten.  The  roses  were  in 
bloom,  and  his  son  Edmund  says:  "It  must  be  confessed 
that  my  father  had  ordered  a  few  loads  of  hay,  already 
housed,  to  be  spread  again  for  the  picturesque  effect  and 
chiefly  to  afford  the  laborers  an  opportunity  of  seeing  the 
President  as  he  walked  over  the  estate." 

The  courtship  of  Mr.  Quincy  was  romantic ;  one  evening  at 
a  small  company,  listening  to  a  song  of  Burns 's,  exquisitely 

regent;  the  corner-stone,  a  polished  Quincy  granite  sleeper  of  the  first 
railroad,  was  laid  by  Abigail  Adams,  daughter  of  John  Quincy  Adams. 
Other  stones  were  from  patriotic  societies;  one  from  Concord  battlefield, 
brought  by  Colonel  E.  S.  Barrett,  President  of  the  Sons  of  the  American 
Revolution;  one  from  Lexington,  by  Mrs.  Abbie  B.  Eastman,  etc. 

1  These  were  of  great  value  to  the  neighborhood,  but  his  favorite 
scheme  of  substituting  the  hawthorn  hedge  for  the  rail-fence  was  more 
ornamental  than  useful,  New  Hampshire  cows  being  more  wilful  than 
the  mild,  civilized  kine  of  England. 

President  Quincy  arose  at  four  and  made  a  breakfast  of  crackers  and 
coffee.  On  account  of,  or  in  spite  of,  his  mother's  hygienic  practices,  he 
lived  to  the  age  of  ninety-two;  when  but  three  years  old,  he  was  taken 
from  his  warm  bed  and  dipped  in  a  "  cold  tub  "  winter  and  summer.  One 
realizes  his  span  of  years  in  remembering  that  Mr.  Quincy  attended  the 
levees  of  Washington,  and  that  President  Lincoln  sent  him  on  New  Year's 
Day,  1863,  an  imperial  photograph  portrait  of  himself. 


"President"  Josiah  Quincy  323 

sung  in  an  adjoining  room,  he  immediately  became  inter- 
ested in  the  stranger,  Miss  Eliza  Susan  Morton,  a  daughter 
of  "the  Rebel  banker,"  as  the  Tories  called  Mr.  Morton, 
who  was  visiting  in  Boston,  and  in  one  week  won  her  hand. 
Miss  Morton  returned  to  New  York,  and  his  first  visit  to 
his  betrothed,  ostensibly  to  see  New  York  and  Philadelphia, 
was  undertaken  in  company  with  Mr.  William  Sullivan,  son 
of  Governor  James  Sullivan,  his  only  confidant.  Mr. 
Quincy  says,  in  part:  "I  set  out  from  Boston  in  the  line  of 
stages  of  an  enterprising  Yankee,  Pease  by  name,  considered 
a  method  of  transportation  of  wonderful  expedition.  The 
journey  to  New  York  took  up  a  week.  The  carriages 
were  old  and  shackling  and  much  of  the  harness  of  ropes. 
.  We  reached  our  resting-place  for  the  night,  if  no 
accident  intervened,  at  ten  o'clock,  and,  after  a  frugal  sup- 
per, went  to  bed  with  a  notice  that  we  should  be  called  at 
three — which  generally  proved  to  be  half -past  two." 

Whether  it  snowed  or  rained,  the  traveller  must  make 
ready  by  the  help  of  a  horn  lantern  and  a  farthing  candle, 
and  proceed  over  bad  roads,  sometimes  obliged  to  help  lift 
the  coach  out  of  the  quagmire.  Mr.  Quincy  met  with  flat- 
tering attentions,  and  made  distinguished  acquaintances 
during  his  stay, — Alexander  Hamilton,  Robert  Morris,  Sam- 
uel Breck.  At  Mr.  William  Bingham's,  Colonel  Quincy  met 
Talleyrand,  then  "in  the  intermediate  state  of  humiliation" 
from  the  bishopric  of  Autun  to  the  principality  of  Beneven- 
tum.  During  this  forced  residence  in  America,  Talleyrand 
formed  his  opinion  of  our  social  pleasures,  and  cynically 
answered  a  French  lady  who  said,  "  You  have  not  forgotten, 
Prince,  the  ball  you  and  I  were  at  together  in  Philadelphia  ? " 
"Ah,  no!"  with  an  eloquent  shrug;  "the  Americans  are  a 
hospitable  people, — a  magnanimous  people, — and  are  des- 
tined to  be  a  great  nation; — mais  leur  luxe  est  affreur. "  l 

Opening  the  jewel-box  of  Miss  Eliza  Susan  Quincy,  one 
finds,  among  other  mementos,  a  valentine  of  1752,  which 

1  Life  of  Josiah  Quincy,  by  Edmund  Quincy. 


324  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 


belonged  to  her  German  grandmother,  Mrs.  Sophia  Kemper 
Morton,  inscribed,  To  Sophia  Kemperin;  a  brooch,  sent  by 
Maria  Edgeworth  to  Miss  Quincy;  a  lock  of  Washington's 
hair,  presented  by  Mrs.  Peters,  the  daughter  of  Martha 
Washington;  and  a  mourning  badge  for  Washington,  worn 
by  Miss  Quincy.  She  lived  in  the  homestead  with  her 

brother  Josiah,  Mayor  of  Boston, 
—the  story  of  the  "Josiahs"  is 
long,  and  it  is  said  of  the  Quincys 
that  while  in  other  families  the 
descent  is  from  sire  to  son,  with 
them  it  is  from  "  'Siah  to  'Siah." 
In  the  burying-ground  of  the 
First  Church  strange  histories 
are  written  underneath  epitaphs 
of  Pilgrim  and  Puritan,  Whig  and 
Tory,  and  pathetic  heart -links 
with  the  Old  World.  Here  lie 
Henry  Flynt,  the  first ' '  teacher, ' ' 
and  his  wife,  Margery  Hoar ;  their 
daughter  was  "Dorothy  Q." 
Margery  Hoar's  mother,  Joanna 
Hoar,  the  widow  of  Charles 
Hoar,  sheriff  of  Gloucester,  emi- 
grated with  five  children. 
"Great  Mother"  is  inscribed 
on  the  tomb  erected  to  her  by 
the  Hon.  George  F.  Hoar,  a  descendant  of  her  son,  John 
Hoar,  who  settled  at  Concord.  Judge  E.  R.  Hoar  endowed 
a  Radcliffe  scholarship  as  a  tribute  to  "the  widow  Joanna 
Hoar,"  by  addressing  a  quaint,  fanciful  letter  to  Mrs.  Agas- 
siz,  purporting  to  have  been  written  by  Joanna  Hoar  from 
old  Braintree,  declaring  herself  "a  contemporary  of  the 
pious  and  bountiful  Lady  Radcliffe,  for  whom  your  college 


The  First  Church  or 
"The  Adams  Temple." 


The  Widow  Joanna  Hoar  325 

is  named."  Dr.  Leonard  Hoar,  son  of  Joanna  Hoar,  third 
President  of  Harvard,  sleeps  here ;  and  his  wife,  the  daugh- 
ter of  gentle  Lady  Alice  Lisle,  whose  existence  was  blighted 
by  the  ferocious  Jeffreys.  Macaulay  tells  the  pitiful  story 
of  how  she  was  condemned  to  be  burned  alive  for  unwittingly 
harboring  two  fugitives  from  the  battlefield  of  Sedgemoor, 
where  the  Monmouth  rebellion  came  to  an  end.  Ladies  of 
high  rank  interceded  for  her,  the  clergy  waxed  indignant, 
and  Jeffreys  reluctantly  commuted  his  barbarous  sentence 
to  beheading.1 

On  Quincy  shore,  the  cruiser  Des  Moines  was  christened 
with  ceremony  on  September  20,  1902,  in  one  of  the  most 
interesting  shipyards  in  the  world.  When  the  small  Fore 
River  Engine  Works  which  built  successfully  steam -yachts, 
undertook  great  battleships  they  were  obliged  to  move  down 
Fore  River  to  Quincy  for  deeper  water.  A  new  era  for 
sail-freighters  is  begun  in  the  completion  of  a  seven-masted 
schooner  of  steel,  the  first  on  any  seas.  In  the  double 
bottom,  water  is  pumped  after  her  cargo  is  delivered,  as  an 
economical  ballast.  The  Rhode  Island  and  New  Jersey, 
first  class  battleships,  were  under  construction  at  the  same 
time. 

1  The  account  of  the  visit  of  Senator  Hoar  to  Moyles's  Court,  the  home 
of  the  Lisles,  is  included  in  The  Hoar  Family  in  America  and  its  English 
Ancestry,  by  Henry  Stedman  Nourse. 


HULL  (NANTASCO),  1624-1644 

"Mariner,  what  of  the  deep  ?" 

QUAINT  little  Hull  is  tucked  away  on  an  elbow  of  Ply- 
mouth County,  amid  fortifications,  memories,  and  the  sea. 
In  front  of  the  bastions  of  this  old  French  fort  have  passed 
in  review  the  world's  argosies.  Her  batteries,  placed  by 
Count  D'Estaing1  in  1776,  kept  at  a  safe  distance  Admiral 
Howe's  fleet,  which  hovered  outside  like  a  British  hawk, 
ready  to  pounce  again  upon  the  French  ships,  recuperating 
in  Boston  Harbor  from  recent  injuries  at  Newport.  On  the 
headland  of  Hull  you  may  sweep  with  a  spy-glass  the  entire 
Puritan  coast  from  Cape  Ann  to  the  "jagged  Brewsters"  in 
Boston  Bay,  than  which  no  bay  is  more  beautiful.  South- 
ward stretches  the  Pilgrim  coast.  From  Plymouth  came 
hither  the  disaffected  Lyford  and  Oldham  to  join  "the 
stragglers"  at  Nantasket  and  trade  with  the  Indians. 
Among  the  first  permanent  settlers  of  Hull  was  John  Prince, 
an  exile  in  Cromwell's  day.  In  the  old  Loring  house  was 
born  Israel  Loring,  pastor  of  Sudbury. 

As  you  watch  the  garrison  flag  on  Fort  Warren  dip  to 
the  setting  sun,  a  government  boat  eagerly  runs  past  her 
guns  toward  the  North  Church  bell-tower,  which  signalled 
Paul  Revere,  and  toward  the  crowning  dome,  the  fluttering 
flags  of  Trimountaine.  As  the  light  fades,  ghostly  vessels 
of  odd  rigging  drift  in  her  wake.  See  first  the  shallop  of 
Governor  Winthrop,  who  has  just  paid  Captain  Squeb  a 

1  During  the  blockade  of  D'Estaing,  Gorernor  Hancock  gave  a  royal 
breakfast  for  the  French  officers  on  Beacon  Hill.  In  return  a  dinner  was 
given  on  board  the  flagship;  Madame  Hancock,  being  requested  to  ring 
a  small  bell,  was  much  startled  at  a  deafening  artillery  salute  in  her 
honor  from  the  entire  squadron. 

326 


Ship  Mary  and  John 


327 


visit  on  the  Mary  and  John.  Squeb  feared  to  enter  this 
unknown  harbor,  and  without  more  ado  put  his  homeless 
passengers  ashore  on  Nantasket  Point  and  left  the  "godly 


Low  Tide — Nantasket  Beach  Reservation. 
"  The  tide  will  ebb  at  day's  decline. 

(Ich  bin  dein.} 
Impatient  for  the  open  sea, 
At  anchor  rocks  the  tossing  ship, 
The  ship  that  only  waits  for  thee." 

families   from   Devonshire   and   Dorsetshire"   to   shift   for 
themselves  "in  a  forlorn  place  in  this  wilderness."  ' 

1  "  But,"  writes  Captain  Roger  Clap,  "as  it  pleased  God,  we  got  a  boat 
of  seme  old  planters  and  laded  her  with  goods,  and  some  able  men  well 
armed  went  in  her  to  Charlestown,  where  we  found  some  wigwams  and 
one  house  .  .  .  and  then  we  went  up  Charles  River,  until  the  river 
grew  narrow  and  shallow,  and  there  we  landed  our  goods  with  much 
labor  and  toil,  the  banks  being  steep  [Watertown].  ...  In  the 


328  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

Some  fifty  years  later  three  frigates,  filled  with  colonists 
and  Indians,  under  Colonel  Benjamin  Church,  the  famous 
Indian  fighter,  are  setting  sail  against  the  French  settle- 
ments of  Maine  and  Acadia.  In  Nantasket  Roads  (1711) 
anchored  the  British  Armada  of  fifteen  men-of-war  and 
forty  transports,  including  Marlborough's  veterans,  under 
Sir  Hovenden  Walker,  whose  hopes  of  the  conquest  of 
Canada  were  destroyed  by  a  storm  at  the  mouth  of  the  St. 
Lawrence. 

A  rare  pageant  was  the  going  away  of  the  ten  victorious 
vessels  of  our  French  allies,  led  by  Le  Triomphant.  Regi- 
ment after  regiment,  plumed  Soissoinais  Grenadiers  resplen- 
dent in  red,  white,  and  pink,  led  by  Comte  Segur,  after- 
wards a  peer  of  France ;  the  Bourbonnais  in  black  and  red ; 
the  Count  de  Deux- Fonts,  with  his  four  battalions;  the 
Saintonge  regiment  led  by  the  Prince  de  Broglie,  and  many 
more,  all  under  the  waving  fleur-de-lys ,  boarded  their  ships 
in  Nantasket  Roads.  Gay  and  gallant  noblemen  and  offi- 
cers, in  two-cornered  cocked  hats  with  the  white  cockade, 
waved  farewell  from  the  quarter-deck.  The  chivalrous 
Lauzun,  with  his  Legion,  was  there;  Viomenil,  afterwards 
slain  defending  the  Tuileries;  the  Chevalier  Alexandre  de 
Lameth;  Count  Mathieu  Dumas;  and  Alexandre  Berthier, 
afterwards  Marshal  under  Napoleon. 

In  the  War  of  1812  the  Constitution  ran  the  blockade  of 
Boston  Harbor  seven  times,  and  set  sail  from  Nantasket 
Roads  preceding  her  capture  of  the  Guerribre,  under  com- 
mand of  Captain  Isaac  Hull,  "the  cool  old  Yankee."  ' 

morning,  some  of  the  Indians  came  and  stood  a  distance  off,  looking  at 
us  ...  some  of  them  came  and  held  out  a  great  bass  towards  us; 
so  we  sent  a  man  with  a  biscuit,  and  changed  the  cake  for  the  bass.  After- 
wards, they  supplied  us  with  bass,  exchanging  a  bass  for  a  biscuit  cake, 
and  were  very  friendly  with  us." 

1  In  the  pursuit  of  the  Constitution  by  the  Belvidere,  the  Shannon,  the 
Guerrtire,  "every  daring  expedient  known  to  the  most  perfect  seamanship 
was  tried,  and  tried  with  success,  and  no  victorious  fight  could  reflect 


Nantasket  Beach  the  Indians'  Play-ground  329 


Skull  Head  was  the  scene  of  aboriginal  battles,  and  Nan- 
tasket Beach  the  play-ground  of  Indian  tribes.  Three 
centuries  ago,  where  yonder  children  are  now  playing  leap- 
frog, stood  a  pole  hung  with  beaver  skins  and  wampum; 
fantastic,  swarthy 
figures  are  running 
and  playing  foot- 
ball to  win  these 
trophies  ;  their 
wild  shouts  may 
be  heard  above 
the  sawkiss  (great 
panting)  of  the 
ocean.  Chiefs  who 
have  seen  eighty 
snows  look  on 
stoically  while  the 
young  men  strike 
on  the  beach  a 
wooden  bowl  con- 
taining five  flat 
pieces  of  bone, 
black  on  one  side 

and   White   On   the 

other  ;  as  the  bones 

bound    and   fall, 

white  or  black,  the  game  is  decided  ;  the  players  sit  in  a 

circle  making  a  deafening  noise,  —  hub,  hub,  "come,  come," 

from  which  it  was  called  hubbub.     Their  council  fires  were 

lighted  on  Sagamore  Hill. 

more  credit  on  the  conqueror  than  this  three  days'  chase  did  on  Hull 
.  .  .  her  officers  and  men  showed  that  they  could  handle  the  sails  as 
well  as  they  could  the  guns.  Hull  out-manoeuvred  Broke  and  Byron  as 
cleverly  as  a  month  later  he  out-fought  Dacres."—  Naval  War  of  1812,  by 
Theodore  Roosevelt. 


s  Frigate  ..  Constitution."  built  at  Boston,  1797. 

..  ThoUt  to0f  sail  OWf  o  ship  of  State  r 


33°  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

Colonial  Boston  sailed  out  here  in  family  parties  to  enjoy 
lobsters,  "fat  and  luscious,"  and  fish  chowder,  with  a 
dessert  picked  on  Strawberry  Hill.  It  is  said  that  Daniel 
Webster  first  delivered  his  apostrophe  to  the  veterans  of 
Bunker  Hill  to  a  gigantic  codfish  off  Nantasket.  Thus 
early  began  the  evolution  of  Nantasket  Beach  as  a  pleasure- 
ground.  It  is  now  scientifically  cared  for  by  the  Metropoli- 
tan Park  Commission.  One  knows  not  at  what  hour  the 
long,  firm  beach  is  most  entrancing.  When  Evening  calls 
forth  her  worlds  of  light  to  illumine  purple  waters  and 
misty  surf,  the  merry  crowd  are  subdued  under  the  spell  of 
music  and  moonlight;  yet,  when  glorious -Morning  sails 
across  waking  skies: 

"The  dewy  beach  beneath  her  glows; 

A  pencilled  beam,  the  lighthouse  burns; 
Full-breathed,  the  fragrant  sea- wind  blows, — 
Life  to  the  world  returns!" 

The  Bath  (BAYARD  TAYLOR). 


COHASSET  (CONAHESSET),  1614-1717-1770 

JERUSALEM  ROAD  is  the  ideal  portal 
of  Cohasset,  combining  in  its  circuit- 
ous length  charming  modern  villas 
with  ancient  settlement.  Doubtless 
the  earliest  inhabitants  of  Nantasco, 
Conahesset,  and  Scituate  built  with 
an  eye  to  the  natural  beauty  of  inlet 
and  shore,  however  stoically  colonial 
M'  L '  ht  ^ore  may  insist  that  material  neces- 

sity is  the.  settler's  plea.     The  artist 

is  struck  by  Cohasset's  fantastically  worn  rocks  of  many 
hues,  lying  alongshore  between  sloping  turf  and  the  cryst- 
alline tones  of  a  changeful  sea.  There  were  no  roads,  not 
so  much  as  a  cart-path,  nigh  Israel  Nichols,  the  weaver, 
when  he  sledded  his  house  across  the  ice  from  Green  Hill  to 
the  south  shore  of  Straits  Pond,  where  ran  the  slight  shore 
trail  on  the  line  of  Jerusalem  Road.  The  trail  became  a 
well-worn  foot-path  about  the  time  that  young  Nathaniel 
Nichols  began  to  go  a-courtin'  Elizabeth  Lincoln  at  Little 
Harbor.  We  fancy  that  Nathaniel  was  so  intent  on  think- 
ing how  pretty  she  looked  in  her  new  meetin'  bunnit,  that 
he  scarcely  noticed  the  moonshine  on  the  water  or  the 
camp-fires  of  the  Hingham  herders  watching  the  cattle  on 
Beach  Island.  Some  evenings  he  found  his  sweetheart 
carding  the  wool  after  the  sheep -shearing ;  again,  weaving 
rye  straws  into  braid  for  the  wide  field -hats ;  sometimes  dip- 
ping candles  or  peeling  apples  as  rosy  as  her  cheeks,  when, 
like  Zekle,  he  crep'  up  unbeknown  and  "peeked  in  thru' 
the  winder."  Elizabeth  would  "blush  scarlit"  when 

331 


332  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

"She  heered  a  foot,  an'  kiiowed  it  tu, 

A-raspin'  on  the  scraper, — 
All  -ways  to  once  her  feelin's  flew, 
Like  sparks  in  burnt -up  paper. 

"An'  all  I  know  is  they  was  cried 
In  meetin'  come  nex'  Sunday."  J 

Elizabeth's  father,  Daniel  Lincoln,  built  on  the  lot  which 

had  fallen  to  the  Rev.  Peter  Hobart,  when  the  first  division 

COHASSET  °f  the  Cohasset  pasture  and  marsh 

LANDMARKS:  Jerusalem  or  Tug-  lands   was  made   among  the  men 

me-nug.    Hull  St.    Strait's  Pond  and       r     TT*        1  j_i  -irn  r 

Dam(T796).      Green  Hill  conglom-    °f     Hmgham ;      the     playfellows     of 
crates  with  "  Titanic  Plums,"  coars-    the    six    Lincolns    Were     the     twelve 

children    of    I  brook    Tower,    the 
cooper.      Aaron    Pratt's 2    house, 
Rock  near  Kimbaii's  Hotel.   Glacial  with  its  gabled  roof  and  diamond 

scratches  on  diabase  dyke.    Cunning-  ,  . 

ham  Bridge.    Saady  Cove.    "Actor's    panes,    Was     the     most     picturesque 

in    early  Cohasset.     It  was  John 

the    first 
thco-  corduroy    bridge    in    1672 


est  pudding-stone  in  the  U.S.  Atlan- 
tic House  Hill,  an  old  volcano.  Black 
Rock,  lava  spout.  Cold  Spring.  Pie 
Corner.  Daniel  Webster's  profile  on 


Retreat."  Summer  homes  of  Law- 
rence Barrett,  Robson,  Crane,  and 
others.  Hominy  Point.  Scene  of  Jacob  who  Constructed 

in 


across 


John  Smith's  "  quarrell 
dians  (1614).     Bassing  Beach. 

hasset  Yacht  club  House.    Govern-  the  swampy  land  to  the  loading- 

ment  Island,  Stone  shaped  here  for 

"  Minot-s."   The  Unitarian  church,  place,  whence  hay  and  wood  were 

1747.    Town  Library;  Indian  irnple-    boated      roun(}tO      Hingham.       Ja- 

ments  ;  skeleton  of  Algonquin  Indian  ; 

colonial  relics.     Home  of  Nehemiah    Cob's     meadow,    near    Cold    Spring, 

,      1r  ..  r\     •  '    1   T  • 

half-Way   between    Daniel   Lin- 


Hobart  (1722)  ;  home  of  Rev.  Joseph 
Osgood.        Glacial   Kettle-holes  on 


Cooper's  Island.        Indian  Pot  and  coln's  place  and  the  hoUSC  of    Mor- 
Indian     Well.      Old     James     house  ... 

(1701).    Tower  homestead  (1750).  decai  Lincoln,  the  blacksmith,   on 

Turkey  meadows. 


Bound  Brook,  the  rivulet  dividing 


1  The  C 'our 'tin' ,  by  James  Russell  Lowell. 

2  Aaron  Pratt  was  the  son  of  Phinehas  Pratt,  who  saved  Wessagusset 
by  his  run  to  Plymouth.     The  fourteenth  child  of  Aaron  was  Chief  Jus- 
tice Benjamin  Pratt  of  New  York.     Aaron  Pratt  owned  a  pear-tree,  the 
delight  of  his  heart,  which  was  persistently  robbed,  notwithstanding  the 
vigilance  of  his  faithful   servant,  and  the  negro's  last  request  was  that 
he  might  be  buried  beneath  that  pear-tree,  so  that  he  could  "see  who 
stole  massa's  pears." 


334  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

Plymouth  Colony  from  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony.  The  in- 
genious, energetic  Mordecai  Lincoln,  ancestor  of  Abraham 
Lincoln,  soon  had  three  milldams  across  Bound  Brook,  and 
it  is  said  that  he  contrived  in  the  dry  season  to  use  the 
same  water  for  his  saw-mill,  grist-mill,  and  iron  smelter. 
After  a  time  the  Lincolns  owned  a  tannery,  where  the 
farmers  sent  hides  before  making  them  into  boots  for  their 
families.  This  smallest  iron  pot,  set  in  the  chimney  corner, 
was  used  to  melt  the  tallow,  which  was  rubbed  into  the  stiff 
leather  during  long  evenings,  to  make  the  boots  pliable 
and  weather-proof.  Indeed,  during  the  first  century,  every 
household  necessity  was  made  at  home  or  bartered  among 
themselves;  blankets,  stockings,  and  homespun  garments 
were  woven  from  the  wool  of  sheep  which  were  washed  in 
Lily,  or  'Kiah  Tower's,  pond  (first  called  Scituate  pond, 
' '  because  it  was  on  the  road  to  Scituate  ") .  Little  meat  was 
to  be  had,  and  the  sailor,  in  his  new  yellow  tarpaulin,  pro- 
visioned his  family  with  a  strip  of  salt  pork  before  starting 
on  a  cruise.  The  good  wives  supplemented  this  and  the 
staple  "rye  'n  Injun"  bread  with  luxuries  made  from  "gar- 
den sass"  ;  for  has  not  Cohasset  its  "  Pie  Corner,"  "  Bread- 
encheese  Tree  Lane,"  and  "Apple  Rock"  near  the  Burbank 
house,  where  apple -bees  were  held  while  the  pieces  of  apple 
were  spread  to  dry  in  the  sun.  What  a  pleasant  place  to 
gossip!  One  dame  inquires  about  the  cut  of  that  elegant 
paduasoy  worn  by  Abby's  cousin  from  Hingham.  Another 
guesses  as  to  whether  the  "catch"  of  the  Pretty  Sail  will 
make  enough  quintals  to  allow  her  to  buy  just  such  a  silk 
cape,  besides  sending  the  children  to  school  next  winter. 
It  was  a  year  of  economy  or  a  year  of  luxury  in  these  days, 
according  to  the  "ups  and  downs"  of  mackerel.  Perhaps 
they  talked  over  the  extraordinary  number  of  red  ears  at 
the  last  huskin'  and  Bethiah  Tower's  wedding-gown.  An 
account  of  this  pretty  wedding  of  1765  has  come  down  to 


A  Cohasset  Wedding-party  335 

us  in  the  diary  of  Marshall  Pratt,  a  grandson  of  John  Pratt, 
the  bridegroom.  Mrs.  Job  Whitcomb,  then  a  girl  of  four- 
teen, tells  the  story: 

"A  company  of  young  men  came  out  through  the  woods 
riding  upon  horses,  each  one  having  his  girl  sitting  behind 
him  on  the  pillion.  They  paraded  in  front  of  the  house  of 
the  groom,  and  my  beau,  Joseph  Whitcomb,  rode  his  horse 
up  to  the  bars.  I  climbed  up  on  the  bars  and  mounted  the 
pillion  behind  him,  John  Pratt,  the  bridegroom,  came  out 
of  the  house  dressed  with  a  three-square  cocked  hat,  white 
coat  with  black  glass  buttons,  knee  breeches  with  buckles, 
up  to  the  fashion.  I  wore  for  a  bonnet,  a  dark  hat  with  a 
low  crown,  wide  rim,  a  broad  red  ribbon  tied  around  it, 
with  two  long  bows.  The  bridegroom  mounted  his  horse, 
rode  single  to  the  head  of  the  company  and  the  rest  fol- 
lowed, two  abreast.  We  went  down  by  the  Cohasset  meet- 
ing-house, up  Deer  Hill  Lane  [Sohier  Street]  to  Mr.  Daniel 
Tower's  house  on  King  Street,  where  the  bride  lived.  We 
had  a  splendid  wedding  and  the  couple  came  to  live  in  the 
groom's  own  house  next  to  his  father's."  * 

Close  to  the  winding  road  along  the  sheltered  waters  of 
the  Cove,  old-fashioned  June  roses  nod  from  the  roofs  of 
cosey  homes,  where,  in  1778,  were  quartered  the  militia. 
Cohasset  had  a  Revolutionary  heroine,  Persis  Tower  Lin- 
coln, a  daughter  of  "Resolution"  Tower.  Mrs.  Lincoln 
could  sail  a  boat  as  well  as  her  husband,  who  had  been  made 
a  prisoner  by  the  British  and  sent  to  Dartmoor  Prison,  and 
she  took  upon  herself  the  task  of  procuring  needed  supplies 
from  Gloucester  when  Boston  harbor  was  occupied  by  the 
enemy's  vessels,  running  the  blockade  as  skilfully  as  any 
old  salt.  Across  the  Cove  the  houses  on  the  rounding  point 

1  A  Narrative  History  of  the  Town  of  Cohasset,  by  E.  Victor  Bigelow, 
with  maps  and  "Botany  of  Cohasset"  by  Priscilla  L.  Collier,  and  "Meas- 
urement of  Trees"  by  Dr.  O.  H.  Howe. 


336  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

are  half  hidden  by  warm,  green  branches.  Crossing  the 
bridge  over  the  quiet  waters  of  Bound  Brook,  one  looks  on 
a  grand  sea-tumult  in  the  "Gulf  Stream";  a  seething  tide 
rushes  through  a  jagged,  narrow  opening  from  the  harbor, 
while  ever,  "like  a  bird  imprisoned,  the  sea  beats  against 


Homestead  of  Mordecai  Lincoln  (1717),  Cohasset. 
Ancestor  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 

its  bars" — the  "  Glades,"  throwing  showers  of  spray  toward 
the  warning  eye  of  Minot  light.  At  night,  across  inky 
clouds,  the  white  light  writes  "danger"  once,  twice,  four 
times, — pauses,  and  finishes  its  number  with  one,  two,  three. 

"  Minot 's"  was  snapped  like  a  pike-staff  on  April  1 6,  1851 
(some  sailors  say  this  would  not  have  happened  had  it  not 
been  that  the  keeper  had  built  a  shelf  to  hold  his  boat,  which 
gave  the  storm  waves  a  lever),  and  it  was  with  the  utmost 


Cohasset  337 

difficulty  that  stone  disks  were  laid  for  a  new  lighthouse 
on  these  sunken  ledges ;  work  could  be  attempted  only  about 
one  hundred  and  fifty  hours  in  the  year,  at  such  scant  mo- 
ments as  the  restless  ocean  chose  to  relent  in  its  mighty 
swell  and  the  tide  served.  Nevertheless,  Captain  Barton 
Alexander,  engineer,  aided  by  Captain  John  Cook,  rigger, 
and  Captain  Nicholas  Tower  and  other  noted  Cohasset  skip- 
pers, succeeded  in  constructing  an  indestructible  tower  of 
Quincy  granite  here  on  Government  Island,  repeating  it  on 
Minot  Ledge. 

Many  lives  have  been  saved  by  the  volunteer  crew  of 
Cohasset;  and,  contemplating  the  Grampuses,  East  and 
West  Hogshead  Rocks,  Gull  Ledge,  and  the  rocks  of  Brush 
Island,  so  picturesque  in  their  brown  sea -weed  dress  at 
summer's  ebb  tide,  so  menacing  in  a  gale,  it  makes  one  glad 
for  the  chances  of  the  wrecked  mariner  of  forlorn  hope  that 
yonder  firm  road  leads  to  a  Life  Saving  Station  at  Scituate. 

At  the  Common,  where  stands  the  home  of  the  first  min- 
ister, the  Rev.  Nehemiah  Hobart,  occupied  by  the  vener- 
able Rev.  Joseph  Osgood  during  his  fifty  years'  pastorate, 
white,  protecting  spires  point  high  above  clustered  home- 
steads ;  here  again  is  contrast,  as  the  broad,  green  level, 
with  its  pretty  pond,  only  sharpens  the  jagged  ledges  en- 
countered every  other  where  in  Quonahassit — the  long-rock- 
place. 


HINGHAM  (BARE  COVE),  1633-1635 

"Out  of  the  hazy  light,  e'en  as  we  gaze 
Grow  on  our  eyes  the  Quincy  spires  far  off; 
The  Weymouth  village  roofs  break  through  the  air, 
And  masts  of  ships  at  anchor. 
The  village  with  its  belfry  and  its  elms." 

Crow  Point,  1869.     JOHN  D.  LONG. 

APPY  is  he  who  knows  this  dear  New  England 
town;  once  an  acquaintance  of  Hingham 
always  a  lover !  She  is  quaint  and  beautiful 
withal,  nestling  among  her  hills  of  greater  or 
lesser  magnitude.  The  wife  of  Judge  Lyman 
of  Northampton  delighted  to  visit  here  when  a 
young  girl,  and  she  thought  that  Hingham  resembled  Cran- 
ford  more  than  any  place  she  ever  saw,  there  being  quite 
as  much  that  was  original  and  intellectually  bright  in  the 
society,  "were  there  only  a  historian  like  Mrs.  Gaskell  to  take 
it  off."  Her  mother,  Mrs.  Edward  H.  Robbins  of  Milton, 
was  a  great  friend  of  the  good  ladies — the  three  Misses 
Barker  of  Hingham,  who  kept  loyal  to  the  King  all  their 
lives,  claiming  George  IV.  as  their  liege  lord  fifty  years 
after  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  Their  home  stood 
on  one  of  the  beautiful  streets  of  the  world,  shadowed  in 
part  by  a  double  row  of  wine-glass"  elms, '  which  extends 
from  Broad  Bridge — near  where  stood  the  stocks — along 
"  Bachelor's  Row,"  over  Glad  Tidings  Plain  to  the  old  turn- 
pike at  Queen  Ann's  Corner.  At  Accord  Pond,  near  by, 
three  famous  trails  met,  from  Plymouth,  Middleboro',  and 
the  Bay.  Tradition  says  that  its  name  originated  in  a  dis- 

The  initial  letter  is  the  belfry  tower  of  Hingham's  New  North  Church 
of  1806. 

338 


The  Preacher,  Peter  Hobart 


339 


pute  over  the  boundaries  of  three  ancient  townships  settled 
in  accord  on  the  ice  one  winter's  day. 

An  independent  little  piece  ly- 
ing between  the  Plymouth  and 
Bay  Colonies,  Hingham  would 
speak  her  mind,  like  her  preacher, 
Mr.  Peter  Hobart,  and  obey  neither 
Pilgrim  or  Puritan  behest  without 
question.  Imagine  the  worshipful 
John  Winthrop  laying  aside  his 
honors  of  the  bench  to  sit  beneath 
the  bar  for  prosecution  on  ac- 
count of  dissension  among  the 
Hinghamites  over  the  question  of 
electing  a  captain  of  their  Train- 


HINGHAM 

LANDMARKS:  Major-General  Lin~ 
coin  homestead  (1667-1694-1772). 
Barker  Wilder  house.  Colonel  John 
Thaxter  or  Quincy  Thaxter  house 
(1718),  South  St.  Andrews  house 
(1685),  North  St.,  near  R.R.  Station. 
Site  whipping-post,  near  Thaxter's 
Bridge.  Andrew's  "  Garrison  "  or 
Perez  Lincoln  house  (1640),  North 
St.  Rev.  Ebenezer  Gay  house,  or 
"  John  Norton's  Mansion  House,"  or 
Colonel  Charles  Lane  homestead.  In 
the  east  end  lived  Richard  Church, 
father  of  Colonel  Benjamin,  "  the 
Indian  fighter."  New  North  Church 
(1806).  Fearing-Cushing-Lincoln 
house  (1680),  North  St.  House  of 
Dr.  Bela  Lincoln,  brother  of  Gen. 
Lincoln,  married  Squire  Edmund 
Quincy's  daughter,  now  The  Cush- 
ing  House.  The  Old  Meeting- 
House  (1681).  Henry  Thaxter 

house  (1762),  Main  St.,  residence  of 
Miss  Susan  B.  Willard ;  Tranquillity 
Grove,  famous  for  social  and  politi- 
cal gatherings,  stood  back  of  the 
house.  House  where  Lafayette 
stopped,  on  site  of  Anchor  Tavern. 
Col.  John  Thaxter  house  (1718), 
South  St.,  now  Wampatuck  Club 

born  at  Hingham  (England),   a  House.    Rainbow-roof  house,  South 
market  town    in  the    county  of 


band !     The 
matic   scene  was 


climax    of    the    dra- 
the   remarkable 


speech     of    Governor 
upon  Liberty. 


Winthrop 


Cotton  Mather  says,  in  his  Life 
of  Mr.  Peter  Hobart,  that  he  was 


Norfolk,  of  parents  eminent  for 
piety.  "  He  was  mostly  a  morn- 
ing student,  not  meriting  the 
name  of  Homo  Lectissimus,  as  he 


Hingham.     "  Wilder    Memorial,  for 
the     promotion     of     Industry     and 


Education ;   given  by  Martin  Wilder, 
a  Mechanic,"  to  the  South  Parish, 


Daniel    Shute     homestead      (1746). 
Almost  intact,  panelled  rooms,  wall- 
j>aper   century   old,   unique   eandle- 
the  Witty  epigrammatist,  from    stick  six  feet  high,  the  candle-holder 

sliding  up  and  down  like  a  modern 


his  long  lying  a  bed,  and  yet  he 
would  improve  the  darkness  of 
the  evening  for  solemn  fixed  illu- 
minating meditations." 

From  Hingham,  England,  came 
also  Matthew   Gushing,   who   em- 


(1680-1799),  South  Hingham.  Pub- 
lic Library,  Centre  Hingham;  geo- 
logical collection  of  rocks  of  Hing- 
ham, gift  of  Thomas  T.  Bouve\  Peter 
Cushing  homestead,  built  by  Daniel 
(1679),  timberc  in  the  barn  taken 


from  first  "  Old  Church 
Cushing  descendants. 


' ;  owned  by 
Beal  house 


34°  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 


(1690) ,  oak  frame ;    opposite  head  of 
Hull  Street  (North  Cohasset  Station), 


owned  by  Beal  descendants, 
ernor  John  A.  Andrew  house. 


Gov- 


barked  on  the  ship  Diligent  with 
his  wife,  children,  and  the  Widow 
Riecroft,  sailing  from  Gravesend 
to  Boston.  The  Cushings  became 
at  once  very  active  in  the  pub- 
lic affairs  of  Hingham  and  the 
Colony.1 

It  is  not  strange  that  Hingham 
and  Lincoln  are  synonymous,  for 
seven  Lincolns — Daniel,  Samuel, 
Stephen,  and  four  Thomases — were  pioneers:  Thomas  the 
cooper,  Thomas  the  weaver,  Thomas  the  miller,  Thomas  the 


Cush- 

ing-Gorham  Lincoln  house,  resi- 
dence of  Miss  Gertrude  Edmands. 
Gushing  -  Keesham  house,  below 
Pear-tree  Hill.  Thomas  Chubbock 
house  (1720),  Liberty  Plain  (timber 
felled  on  the  spot).  Bradley  Hill. 
Old  Colony  Hill.  The  World's  End. 
Brewer  Estate  (leave  Nantasket 
car  at  Martin's  Lane,  one  mile  walk, 


superb  view).      Squirrel  Hill, 
pect  Hill,  highest  point. 


Pros- 


1  Matthew  Gushing  and  his 
wife,  Nazareth  Pitcher,  are 
ancestors  of  all  the  New  Eng- 
land Cushings;  John  Gush- 
ing, his  son,  purchased  Belle 
House  Neck,  Scituate,  and 
one  of  his  ten  sons  was  the 
Hon.  John  Gushing,  born  at 
Scituate,  member  of  the  Gov- 
ernor's Council,  and  one  of 
thirty-three  justices  who  gov- 
erned the  Superior  Court  of 
Massachusetts  between  its 
foundation  in  1692  and  its 
overthrow  by  the  Revolution, 
the  Bench  consisting  of  five 
members.  His  son,  the  Hon. 
John  Gushing,  Councillor  of 
the  Province,  was  one  of  the 
presiding  judges  at  the  trial 
of  the  British  soldiers  after 
the  Boston  Massacre.  He 
married  a  granddaughter  of 
Josiah  Winslow,  a  brother  of 
Governor  Edward  Winslow; 

and,  for  his  second  wife,  the  daughter  of  Josiah  Cotton,  whose  estate 

covered  from  Pemberton  Square  to  Ashburton  Place. 


Accord  Pond. 


Four  Thomas  Lincolns  at  Hingham       341 


husbandman.  Thomas  Lincoln  the  cooper  built  the  house 
later  the  home  of  the  Hingham  patriot,  Major-General 
Benjamin  Lincoln.  "The  crowning  moment  of  his  career 
was  on  the  day  of  the  surrender  of  Cornwallis  at  Yorktown, 
when  he  was  sent  by  Washington  to  receive  the  sword  of 
the  British  Commander."  General  Lincoln  was  also  Secre- 
tary of  War  and 
a  member  of  the 
Massachusetts 
Convention  that 
ratified  the  Con- 
stitution. The 
heirlooms  of  the 
low,  wainscoted 
rooms  have  for- 
tunately never 
suffered  from  fire 
or  fateful  mov- 
ing. The  rare 
fire-back  has 
been  given  to 
the  Massachu- 
setts Daughters  of  the  American  Revolution  for  a  perpetual 
loan  to  Continental  Hall  by  the  family  of  Samuel  T.  Crosby. 

Two  centuries  have  left  a  South  Hingham  house,  in 
which  was  enacted  a  pretty  drama  of  our  colonial  wars, 
almost  unchanged.  The  Nameless  Nobleman,  Francis  Le 
Baron,  was  concealed  between  the  floors,  and  capped  the  ro- 
mantic episode  by  marrying  his  brave  little  friend,  Molly 
Wilder,  the  daughter  of  the  house. 

In  the  old  Thomas  Thaxter  mansion  of  1652,  removed  in 
1864,  was  a  blind  passage  with  a  secret  door,  where  Tories 
were  concealed  from  the  Committee  of  Safety,  thence 
smuggled  to  Boston.  Major  Samuel  Thaxter  was  captured 


The  Guardian  Elm,  South  Hingham. 


342  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

by  the  Indians  at  the  massacre  of  Fort  William  Henry  and 
tied  to  a  tree.  Seeing  two  French  officers,  he  said,  "  Is  this 
the  way  you  treat  commissioned  officers?"  They  let  him 
go  and  he  managed  to  drag  himself  to  Fort  Edward.  His 
comrades  reported  him  missing  at  home,  and  Dr.  Gay 
preached  his  funeral  sermon.  When  Major  Thaxter  T  ar- 


Derby  Academy  from  Broad  Bridge. 


Why, 


rived,  he  met  Caleb  Bates  driving  home  his  cows. 
Major,"  he  exclaimed,  "we  have  just  buried  you!" 

Jeremiah  Lincoln  and  Moses  Whiton  were  appointed  by 
the  First  Parish  to  keep  the  porch  of  the  meeting-house 
"from  being  needlessly  encumbered  with  women  on  the 
Sabbath."  This  refers  to  the  porch  of  the  unique  "Old 
Meeting-House,  "  erected  in  1681,  the  oldest  house  of  public 
worship  now  in  use  in  the  United  States. 

Daniel  Webster  was  not  the  first  admirer  of  the  view  from 
Otis  Hill,  for  John  Otis,  who  founded  a  memorable  family, 

1  Major  Thaxter's  liquor-case,  punch-bowl,  knee-buckles,  leather 
breeches,  the  compass  which  guided  him  through  trackless  Canadian 
forests,  and  his  "four-poster,"  surmounted  by  a  crown,  are  still  extant. 


Weari- All-Hill  343 

made  it  his  home  as  early  as  1633.  He  called  it  Weari-All- 
Hill,  in  honor,  it  is  supposed,  of  that  famous  hill  in  Glaston- 
bury  town,  where  stood  "the  little  wattled  church,  the 
mother  of  England's  worship."  l  On  the  fifth  branch  of 
the  Otis  tree  bloomed  Mercy  Otis  Warren,  whose  life  is  a 
striking  link  in  the  chain  connecting  the  colonial  and  Revo- 
lutionary periods.  An  intimate  friend  of  Abigail  Adams, 
they  indulged  in  literary  afternoon  tea — ' '  afternoon  inter- 
views" Mrs.  Warren,  the  "  blue-stocking,"  calls  them.  The 
Otis  Hill  encampment  of  the  First  Corps  of  Cadets,  M.V.M., 
organized  in  1741,  is  a  yearly  reminder  of  Hingham's  mili- 
tary honors,  which  began  in  the  election  of  the  first  com- 
mander of  the  colonial  militia,  Lieutenant  Anthony  Eames. 
The  blue  forget-me-not  grows  wild  in  wide  meadows, 
which  enhance  the  charming  variety  of  scenery  in  Hingham ; 
here  are  marshes  and  sea,  the  Mount  Blue  drives,  Jeru- 
salem Road,  Crow's  Point,  and,  above  all,  World's  End,  with 
its  view  of  views — Boston  Harbor,  Boston's  Dome,  islands 
fortified  and  islands  green,  and  yellow  Nantasket  shore. 

1  Mercy  Warren,  by  Alice  Brown. 


Wilder' s  Pond,  Hingham. 


WEYMOUTH,  1622-1635 

"  We  primeval  forests  felling, 
We  the  rivers  stemming 

Conquering,  holding,  daring,  venturing  as  we  go  the  unknown  ways, 
Pioneers!     O  pioneers!'1 

WALT  WHITMAN. 

THE  delightful  old  town  of  Weymouth  is  the  only  one  in 
the  Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts  to  retain  its  original 
boundaries,  and  is  next  in  age  to  Plymouth.  At  first,  Wes- 
sagusset  was  the  tiniest  struggling  plantation  started  by 
the  buccaneer  West  on,  also  called  Old  Spain.  Why  "Old 
Spain"  tradition  telleth  not,  for  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges,1 
Cavalier,  instigator  of  the  first  permanent  settlement  under 
his  son,  Captain  Robert  Gorges,  at  Weymouth  in  Septem- 
ber, 1623,  was  not  of  Spanish  origin,  as  his  name  might 
imply,  but  a  picturesque  Elizabethan  character,  a  lover  of 
adventure  like  his  kinsman,  Raleigh,  aspiring  to  a  stately 
palatinate  in  the  New  World,  and  each  spring  dreamed 
golden  dreams  of  crossing  to  take  possession  of  his  domain 
in  royal  state  with  a  magnificent  retinue  of  retainers. 

Wessagusset  and  Plymouth  were  as  friendly  over  the 
Indian  trail  as  a  primeval  wilderness  permitted,  but  the 
notable  courtesy  of  the  Pilgrims  was  put  to  severe  test  by 
Weston  and  his  rude  companions.  The  men  of  Plymouth 

1  The  patent  of  land  to  Robert  Gorges  by  the  indefatigable  Sir  Fer- 
dinando extended  from  Nahant  through  Middlesex  County  as  far  as  Con- 
cord. The  immense  royal  patent  granted  to  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges  and 
heirs,  as  Lords  Proprietors  of  the  Province  of  Maine,  included  sixty  miles 
of  sea-coast.  Gorges  created  Gorgeana,  now  York,  Me.,  a  city  and  seat 
of  government.  The  hot  controversy  over  rights  to  this  territory  was 
ended  by  his  grandson  Ferdinando,  who,  in  1677,  in  consideration  of 
^1250,  conveyed  the  title  to  the  Governor  and  Company  of  Massachusetts 
Bay. 

344 


Standish  at  Wessagusset 


345 


were  warned  that  mischief  was  brewing  at  Wessagusset  by 
the  friendly  Massasoit,  who  was  grateful  for  the  care  be- 
stowed upon  him  by  the  Pilgrim  Edward  Winslow,  during 
a  severe  illness.  It  was  a  truly  ^horrible  plot,  concocted  by 
Wituwamet  and  certain  hostile  chiefs,  to  murder  the  half- 
starved  colonists,  and,  after  an  easy  victory,  hang  Pilgrim 
scalps  at  their  belts,  anon  wiping 
out  all  hated  white  usurpers.  The 
red  men  had  reckoned  without 
taking  into  account  the  Sword-of- 
the-White-Men, — Myles  Standish 
the  indomitable, — -wisest  general 

Of  his  daV 

When,    at     the 

i623j  Phineas  Pratt,  now  known 

as  "the  Old  Planter,"  and  of  finer  Essex  st>. 


WEYMOUTH 

LANDMARKS:  Arnold  Tavern 
(1698),  Commercial  St.  Asa  Webb- 
Cowing  house.  Blanchard  home- 
stead, the  Loud  residence.  Captain 
Samuel  White-Tufts  house  (1664). 
Joseph  White-Samuel  Webb  house 
(1700),  birthplace  Major  John  White, 
Webb  Park.  Tufts  Library  (con- 
taining MS.  letter  of  Abigail  Adams). 
Old  Weston  house,  Front  St.  (1756). 
Close  Of  March,  Weston  mansion,  Washington  St., 


Bicknell    homestead, 
TTT  Jackson  Sq.      William  Reed  estate, 

stuff  than  others  m  Weston  s  com-  pieasant   St.,   south   weymomh. 
pany,   dragged   himself  into   Ply-  Ayer-Thayer  house  d**).    Fogg 

J       Library,    Memorial.  Weymouth 

the  Pilgrims  Of  Great  Pond,  300  acres.  Poole's 
Tavern.  Reed  homestead  (1769), 
Front  St.  Noah  Reed-Vining  Place. 
Old  North  Church,  Weymouth 
Heights.  Old  Parsonage  (removed 
to  Bridge  St.),  birthplace  Abigail 
Adams.  General  Lovell  house,  Neck 
St.  Old  North  Burying  Ground. 
King  Oak  Hill.  Selima  Wiles  house. 
Bayside  (leave  car  at  Sea  St.).  Fort 
Point,  ij  miles  from  Brown's  Cor- 


dragged   himself  into   Ply- 
mouth to    warn 

treachery,  he  found  Standish  ready 
armed,  about  to  set  sail  for  Wessa- 
gusset in  his  shallop,  with  eight 
men  and  the  Indian,  Hobamack. 
Pratt  eluded  the  Indians,  who  had 
boldly  planted  wigwams  close  to 
the  white  men,  by  making  a  pre- 
tence of  searching  for  ground-nuts  and  acorns,  and  gradu- 
ally creeping  on  into  the  woods ;  fortunately,  he  wandered 
from  the  trail  in  a  tangle  of  swamp  and  underbrush,  and  the 
pursuing  Indian  scout  passed  him  by.  Pratt  spent  the 
night  by  a  smouldering  fire  amongst  howling  wolves,  eat- 
ing his  last  handful  of  parched  corn,  as  he  looked  down 
from  Duxbury  on  the  huts  of  Plymouth. 

Standish  found  the  Swan  lying  in  Weymouth  Fore  River 


ner.     Rose  Cliff. 


346  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

deserted.  Wituwamet  flourished  his  knife  in  face  of  the 
whites,  and  threatened  that  this  knife,  carved  with  the  face 
of  a  woman,  should  see  and  act,  but  not  speak.  The  boast- 
ful Pecksuot,  largest  of  the  braves,  taunted  Standish  with 
his  diminutive  size,  and,  in  the  blockhouse,  it  was  he  whom 
Standish  disarmed  and  killed  with  his  own  knife.  So 
Standish,  in  his  one  scrimmage  with  the  Indians,  nipped 
their  project  in  the  bud  and  saved  the  infant  nation.  Had 
these  chiefs  been  armed  with  the  "weapons  that  speak," 
with  which  Morton  of  Merry  Mount  later  supplied  the  sav- 
ages, it  would  have  been  another  story.  Weston's  people 
sailed  away  to  the  north.  The  head  of  Wituwamet,  "that 
bold  and  bloody  villain  before  spoken  of,"  was  set  up  on 
Plymouth's  new  fort  as  a  warning  to  the  imprisoned  spy 
who  followed  Pratt.  Governor  Bradford  then  released  him, 
believing  that  the  tale  of  his  experience  would  terrorize 
their  enemies  into  begging  a  peace. 

In  September,  Captain  Robert  Gorges J  and  a  worthy  fol- 
lowing took  possession  of  Weston's  palisade ;  yet  no  traces 
of  the  English  church  government  remained  in  Weymouth 
when  the  learned  Rev.  Samuel  Newman  entered  on  his 
Puritan  pastorate.  Certain  foundations  recently  brought  to 
light  are  thought  to  belong  to  Mr.  Morrell's  Episcopal 
Chapel. 

Weymouth  was  buried  from  the  world  before  the  day  of 
packets,  and  our  great-great-grandsires  walked  to  Boston 
with  goods  on  their  backs  to  trade.  The  staunch  yeoman 

1  Gorges  brought  over  with  him  two  divines,  in  order  to  form  a  settle- 
ment under  the  English  church.  The  Rev.  William  Blackstone  shortly 
departed  for  Shawmut  (Boston) ;  and  the  Rev.  William  Morrell,  in  1625, 
followed  Gorges  back  to  England,  extolling  in  Latin  verse  the  charms  of 
our  summer,  deprecating  the  "wondrous  cruell  red  man,"  yet  finding 
beautiful  the  Indian  baskets  into  which  their  women  wove 

"Rare  stories,  princes,  people,  kingdomes,  towers, 
In  curious  finger- worke,  or  parchment  flowers." 


-• 


••§•* 

^3  't* 


S|| 

(V-    .~    .«• 


I'S 

I  s 


348    Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

toiled  from  ' '  early  morn, ' '  the  women  of  the ' '  best  families  '* 
scrubbed  and  sanded  their  floors,  a  fresh  white  apron  being 
the  only  dress-parade. 

However,  none  were  more  proud  of  their  "stock"  than 
these  pioneers.  When  John  Adams,  a  young  lawyer,  came 
courting  Abigail  Smith,  the  parson's  daughter,  the  village 
verdict  "had  it"  that  the  Adams  family  was  not  "good 
enough"  for  the  Smiths.  The  parson  appeared  obdurate  at 
first,  and,  in  the  course  of  true  love,  John  was  not  allowed 
to  put  up  his  horse  in  her  father's  barn,  but  must  needs 
hitch  him  to  a  friendly  tree.  After  Parson  Smith  gave  his 
consent,  the  village  knew  that  he  would  brook  no  meddling, 
by  his  sermon  to  cavilling  neighbors  from  the  text,  "For 
John  came  neither  eating  bread  nor  drinking  wine,  and  ye 
say,  he  hath  a  devil."  He  himself  performed  the  marriage 
ceremony,  and  John  and  Abigail  stole  away  from  their  merry 
guests,  walking  under  a  crescent  moon  to  John's  pretty 
cottage  of  the  long  well-sweep,  facing  the  sea  on  the  Ply- 
mouth turnpike.  A  few  rods  distant  stands  the  house  of 
his  father,  John  Adams,  on  the  line  dividing  the  old  North 
Precinct  from  the  old  South  Precinct  of  Braintree.  These 
two  houses  had  belonged  to  Deacon  Penniman,  one  of 
Braintree's  founders,  and  his  son.  The  North  Precinct  be- 
came the  town  of  Quincy ;  Abigail  Adams  named  her  boy 
Quincy  in  honor  of  her  grandfather,  whose  father,  Edward 
Quinsey,  held  one  of  the  early  grants. 

The  colonial  tavern  was  in  high  repute,  and  often  within 
a  stone's  throw  of  the  church.  Rice's  Tavern  was  noted  for 
the  hospitality  of  mine  host  and  hostess.  On  a  never-to- 
be-forgotten  occasion,  Josiah  Rice  drove  in  his  chaise  to 
Cambridge  to  attend  Harvard  Commencement.  His  cos- 
tume of  cinnamon  broadcloth,  small  clothes  with  large  pearl 
buttons,  and  silver  buckles  of  the  latest  mode,  was  con- 
sidered above  reproach.  It  is  doubtful  if  John  Hancock 


35°  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

himself,  in  purple  velvet  coat  and  flowered  waistcoat,  was 
thought  to  be  more  bravely  arrayed. 

Not  long  after  the  first  meeting  of  the  Committee  of 
Safety  at  Arnold  Tavern,  the  landing  of  the  British  on 
Grape  Island  called  forth  the  men  of  Weymouth,  Hingham, 
and  Braintree,  two  thousand  strong.  The  patriot  women 
had  their  share  of  the  battles ;  not  only  did  they  melt  their 
precious  pewter  into  bullets  without  a  murmur  for  their 
husbands  and  sons,  but,  like  Abigail  Adams,  managed 
farms,  fasted  from  tea,  scorned  English  frocks,  and  made 
homespun  the  fashion. 

Weymouth  was  greatly  agitated  by  the  anti-slavery 
cause.  William  Lloyd  Garrison  and  Wendell  Phillips  were 
often  entertained  at  the  Weston  mansion  by  Mrs.  Maria 
Weston  Chapman.  It  was  the  sensation  of  the  day  when 
this  remarkably  beautiful  woman  delivered  her  maiden 
speech  at  Pennsylvania  Hall  in  the  face  of  a  pelting  mob. 

From  the  sportsman's  point  of  view,  Weymouth  is  a 
"capital"  town;  Whitman's  Pond  and  Weymouth  Great 
Pond  are  wild  duck's  haunts.  On  sunny  days  in  April, 
Weymouth  Back  River  is  no  longer  a  river  of  water,  but  of 
herring;  the  fish  are  literally  shovelled  out.  Weymouth 
smelts  are  "choice,"  and  it  is  not  an  uncommon  affair  to 
see  a  clever  cat  catching  a  tomcod  in  Fore  River.  The  old 
ditty  runs : 

"Cohasset  for  beauty, 

Hingham  for  pride; 
If  not  for  its  herring 
Weymouth  had  died." 

The  town  possesses  wide  and  lovely  outlooks.  The  path 
of  silvery  Fore  River  is  bounded  by  green  meadows,  the 
meadows  by  wooded  hills,  and  toward  the  east  glimpses  of 
Hull  and  Nantasket.  The  air  is  fresh  with  the  salt  breeze, 
and  Wey mouth's  highways  carry  one  quickly  to  the  shore, 


Weymouth  Scenery  351 

to  Cohasset,  Nantasket,  or  Scituate.  Westward  are  the 
granite  ridges  of  Quincy  and  the  Blue  Hills.  Weymouth 
herself  has  a  seam-faced  stone  of  value,  much  like  weather- 
beaten  marble  touched  with  the  stain  of  centuries. 

Sundown  at  beautiful  Rose  Cliff  on  the  Bay  and  Fort 
Point  creates  a  veritable  Holland  coast  scene,  as  the  various 
craft,  large  and  small,  with  tinted,  flapping  sails,  drift  sleep- 
ily with  the  current  toward  Nantasket  Roads  and  the  open 
sea. 


Husking — The  Farmer's  Rainy  Day. 


BRAINTREE,   1633-1640 

THE  first  grant  within  the  present  town  of  Braintree, 
which  once  included  Quincy,  Randolph,  and  Holbrook,  was 
that  to  John  Hull,  master  of  the  Massachusetts  Mint;  his 
"Water  Farm"  was  bounded  by  Monatiquot  River  (on 
which  were  the  iron -works  planted  by  John  Winthrop,  Jr.), 
by  Little  Pond,  and  by  Great  Pond.  John  Hull  coined 
money  for  the  Province  until  Charles  II.  forbade  it.  He 
raised  a  large  fortune  from  his  perquisites,  they  "being 
i5d.  for  every  205.  coined."  On  the  marriage  of  Hull's  only 
daughter  to  Judge  Sewall,1  he  directed  that  "balances" 
should  be  brought  in ;  placing  his  daughter  in  one  scale, 
he  threw  bright  pine-tree  shillings  and  sixpences  into  the 
other  until  she  went  up  and  the  coins  went  down,  then  pre- 
sented them  both  to  the  young  lawyer.  John  Hull  also 
owned  lands  in  the  Narraganset  country  and  named  Point 
Judith  for  his  wife,  Judith  Quincy,2  not  foreseeing  that  the 
headland  was  destined  to  be  for  ever  the  bete  noir  of 
travellers. 

On  the  back  of  the  Indian  deed  preserved  in  Braintree,— 
"signed,  sealed,  and  delivered  by  turf  and  twig"  by  Wam- 
patuck,  son  of  Chickatabut,  with  the  consent  of  his  wise 
men, — is  written,  "  In  the  iyth  reign  of  Charles  II.  Braintry 
Indian  Deede  given  1665,  Aug.  lotti.     Take  great  care  of 

1  "  From  this  marriage  has  sprung  the  eminent  family  of  Sewalls,  which 
has  given  three  Chief  Justices  to  Massachusetts  and  one  to  Canada,  and 
has  been  distinguished  in  every  generation  for  the  talents  and  virtues  of 
its  members." — Life  of  Josiah  Quincy,  by  his  son,  Edmund  Quincy. 

2  Judith  Quincy  was  the  datighter  of  the  first  Edmund  Quincy,  who, 
arriving  in  Boston  with  the  Rev.  John  Cotton  in  1633,  purchased,  with 
Coddington,  the  beautiful  site  of  Movint  Wollaston,  in  Braintree,  North 
Precinct  (Quincy) ,  from  Chickatabut. 

352 


The  "  Brain  try  Indian  Deede  "  353 

it."  .  Wampatuck  parted  with  his  Braintree  lands — in  con- 
sideration of  twenty -one  pounds  ten  shillings,  paid  by  Sam- 
uel Basse,  Thomas  Faxon,  Francis  Eliot, William  Needham, 
and  William  Sewall,  Henry  Neale,  Richard  Thayer,  and 
Christopher  Webb — "with  the  ex-|  BRAINTREE 

ception    of    Mr.   Wilson's    farme,   LANDMARKS:     First 
Mr.      Coddington's      farme,      Mr. 
Hough's  neck  of  land,  Mr.    Quin- 
sey's  farme,"  lands  purchased  pre- 
viously of  Chickatabut. 

Braintree 's  most  famous  church 
is  that  of  the  Middle  Precinct,  of- 
ten called  "Dr.  Storrs's  '  Church," 

i   •  i  -i      T     Watson.     GJen  Rose  Farm.      Echo 

his    pastorate    having     extended  Lake.  Hayward'S  woods.  Tnboiite 

Over    Sixty-three     years,     and     that  !  Quarry,     Hayward's  Creek.     Thayer 
_  Academy,  South  Braintree.       Great 

of  the  Rev.  oamuel  Niles  covered 
fifty -one  years. 

The  Union  Church  of  Braintree  and  Weymouth,  or  the 
"Migratory  Meeting-House,"  was  the  old  Hollis  Street 
Church  of  Boston,  floated  on  a  raft  to  Braintree  in  1810. 
Brigadier-General  Sylvanus  Thayer  of  Braintree  fortified 
Boston  Harbor  from  1833  to  1863.  During  his  adminis- 
tration West  Point  became  one  of  the  best  academies  in 
the  world.  General  Thayer  bequeathed  a  fund  to  establish 
the  present  Thayer  Academy. 

Braintree  and  Weymouth  are  so  closely  allied  that  it  is 
very  puzzling  on  first  acquaintance  to  unravel  the  boundary 
lines,  which  run  in  an  unusual  way  across  the  main  streets. 
East  Braintree  is  at  the  head  of  navigation  of  the  Monati- 
quot.  It  touches  Weymouth  Landing,  now  simply  Wey- 
mouth, as  the  old-time  packets  are  gone  out  of  commission. 
The  trilobite  quarry  at  East  Braintree  is  classic  ground  to 
the  geologist.  Before  the  discovery  of  the  fossil  rock  by 

1  The  father  of  the  late  Dr.  Richard  S.  Storrs  of  Brooklyn. 
23 


tional  Church.  Holbrook  house. 
Caleb  Stetson  house,  East  Braintree, 
residence  of  Mrs.  H.  C.  Prescott. 
Naatnan  White  house.  Bowditch 
house,  Quincy  Ave.,  near  Weymouth 
line  (a  Beacon  St.  house  floated  on 
rafts  to  Quincy  Ave.,  1812).  Resi- 
dence of  Commodore  James  Hall,  the 
"  Jim  Hall  "  of  Two  Years  Belote  the 
Mast,  Fore  River.  Old  Minot-Thayer 
estate,  residence  of  Thomas  A. 


Meadows,  off  Union  St.,  noted  for 
variety  of  insects. 


354  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

Professor  Rogers  (the  same  fossil  is  found  in  Bohemia),  no 
one  could  accurately  state  the  age  of  the  stones  about 
Boston.  The  quarry-men  had  a  tradition  that  these 
"images  dated  back  to  Noah's  Ark  and  had  something  to 
do  with  the  flood."  From  the  highway  between  North 
Braintree  and  Quincy,  which  touches  the  Adams  houses, 


The  Monatiquot  River 

are  views  of  the  Blue  Hills  and  bristling  granite  quarries ; 
in  Quincy  this  old  Plymouth  path  passes  the  old  parish  of 
Christ  Church  and  the  Stone  Temple,  and  becomes  Hancock 
Street. 

RANDOLPH 

The  people  of  South  Braintree  were  so  much  inconven- 
ienced by  the  long  journey  to  Meeting  at  the  South  or 
Middle  Precinct,  that  they  organized,  in  1731,  the  "New 
South  Precinct"  parish,1  and  named  the  village  in  honor  of 
the  Hon.  Peyton  Randolph  of  Virginia. 

1  Well-known  preachers  were  the  Rev.  Moses  Taft,  Dr.  Jonathan 
Strong,  and  the  Rev.  Calvin  Hitchcock. 


356  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

A  charming  kit-cat  of  Randolph  is  that  seen  from  South 
Braintree.  Approaching  Randolph  from  Milton  by  way  of 
the  Blue  Hills  Reservation,  one  prefers  to  walk  from  the 
handsome  Baptist  Church  over  the  long  shady  street,  the 
stage  highway  from  Boston  to  Middleboro',  rather  than  to 
ride  through  this  "loveliest  village  of  the  plain"  by 

"The  never-failing  brook,  the  busy  mill, 
The  decent  church  that  topt  the  neighboring  hill." 

The  old  parish  spire  beckons  you  up  to  the  gradual  slope 
to  the  Major  Luther  French  homestead,  or  Howard  house, 
opposite  the  Turner  Library.  The  hospitable  parsonage 
and  church,  Stetson  Hall,  and  the  Dr.  Howard  house  com- 
plete Randolph's  typical  New  England  village  square.  On 
South  Main  Street  is  the  Dr.  Alden  place,  and  beyond  is  the 
early  home  of  Mary  E.  Wilkins,  where  Pembroke  was  writ- 
ten. Under  the  Great  Oak,  by  the  Eleazer  Beale  homestead, 
are  cool  shade  and  a  wide  horizon,  including  Holbrook, 
another  pretty  country  town.  Two  miles  farther  south  is 
Avon,  and,  leaving  old  Braintree,  one  enters  Plymouth 
County  and  the  first  inland  town  of  Old  Colony,  at  Brock- 
ton, formerly  a  part  of  the  ancient  township  of  Bridge- 
water. 


THE  OLD  COLONY 

"I  will  the  country  see,  Doth  look  more  gay 

Where  old  simplicity  Than  foppery  in  plush 

Though  hid  in  gray.  And  scarlet  cloak." 

IN  following  the  wondrous  steps  which  lead  up  to  our 
great  Republic, — the  study  and  pleasure  of  a  lifetime, — 
every  one  will  choose ,  to  begin  with,  the  pretty  and  daring 
Mary  Chilton  as  she  stepped  on  Plymouth  Rock. 

All  roads  lead  to  Plymouth — you  will  remark  that  at  the 
very  beginning  of  your  pilgrimage  through  the  Old  Colony. 
This  is  the  key  to  our  new  historical  journey ;  with  it  you 
may  unlock  the  doors  of  any  one  of  the  old  homesteads, 
and,  having  minutely  traced  the  branches  of  its  family  tree, 
you  will  find  unravelled  the  history  of  the  towns  on  famous 
Indian  paths, — the  Plymouth,  Middleborough,  Narraganset, 
and  Bay  trails.  You  ask  why  genealogical  threads  are 
more  closely  interwoven  in  the  Pilgrim  Republic  than  else- 
where,— it  is  a  commercial  reason,  common  to  new  nations. 
The  settlement  of  Plymouth,  with  its  standard  of  religious 
liberty,  is  markedly  different  from  the  spirit  of  western  voy- 
ageurs  seeking  an  El  Dorado, — a  land  strewn  with  pearls, 
gold,  and  silver, — or  from  that  love  of  national  glory,  discov- 
ery, and  conquest  which  impelled  a  Raleigh,  a  Newport,  or 
a  Smith.  Macaulay  says  that  "  in  England  the  passion  for 
colonial  traffic  was  so  strong,  that  there  was  scarce  a  small 
shop-keeper  in  Bristol  who  had  not  a  venture  in  some  ship 
bound  for  Virginia."  The  flourishing  seaports  on  the 
North  Shore  received  new  settlers  with  each  incoming  tide, 
some  for  conscience'  sake,  more  for  material  gain;  while 
Plymouth,  offering  no  great  advantages  for  trade,  slowly 
spread  her  wings  over  Duxbury,  Scituate,  the  Bridgewaters, 

357 


358  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

Middleborough,  even  to  far  "Secunke,"  and  over  many 
another  child  who  boasts  with  reason  the  Mayflower  cult 
as  her  sails  winged  freedom  westward.  Existence  within 
the  sheltering  arm  of  Cape  Cod  without  one  Mayflower 
ancestor  is  as  forlorn  as  "a  man  without  a  country." 


The  Rowland  Homestead,  Plymouth. 

Built  by  a  son  of  John  Howland,  "  the  last  man  that  was  left  of  those  who 
came  over  in  the  '  Mayflower,'  that  lived  in  Plymouth." — Records. 


PLYMOUTH,  1620 

"  Know' st  thou  the  land  ?" 

IF  the  little  birds  that  sing  and  fly,  the  rare  Sabbatia 
flower  and  all  the  flowers  that  grow  in  the  faire  land  of  Ply- 
mouth, could  tell  us  of  the  Past,  how  much  more  clearly 
we  might  see  than  by  walking  in  the  street  of  the  fore- 
fathers and  touching  in  their  homes  the  things  they  touched. 

Of  Plymouth  "there  has  been  so  much  said,  and  on  the 
whole  so  well  said,"  by  both  friends  and  enemies,  that  I 
will  only  preface  your  study  by  a  few  personal  impressions. 
Turning  inland  from  "  Forefathers'  Rock,"  you  pass  thought- 
fully under  the  lindens  tesselating  North  Street  with  gentle 
shadows,  remembering  that  the  Puritan  maid,  Penelope 
Winslow '  and  her  lover  walked  here  ere 

"The  old  house  by  the  lindens 
Stood  silent  in  the  shade." 

On  the  brow  of  Cole's  Hill,  of  lovely  harbor  prospect  at 
high  tide,  the  Pilgrims  mournfully  planted  a  field  of  grain 
to  prevent  the  Indians  counting  the  graves  of  those  lost  in 
that  severe  winter.  Straying  somewhat  from  the  beaten 
path  of  the  tourist,  in  order  to  obtain  the  finest  perspective 
of  Pilgrim  land  before  embracing  its  details,  by  the  aid  of 
a  south-bound  car  you  attain  a  bluff  high  above  Plymouth 
beach,  a  wonderful  natural  breakwater.  As  far  as  the  eye 
can  reach  you  trace  the  course  of  the  Mayflower  advancing 

1  It  is  said  that  Penelope  Winslow  planted  the  two  lindens  in  front  of 
the  old  Winslow  house.  In  its  quaint  withdrawing-room  Ralph  Waldo 
Emerson  was  married  to  Miss  Lidian  Jackson,  driving  down  in  his  chaise 
from  Concord,  and  returning  by  chaise  with  his  bride  next  day. 

359 


PLYMOUTH 

LANDMARKS:  Plymouth  Rock. 
Pilgrim  Spring.  Winslow  house, 
North  St.  Pilgrim  Hall.  National 
Monument  to  the  Forefathers.  Bur- 
ial Hill  (Fort  Hill),  sites  of  old  fort, 
first  meeting-house  and  Watch 
Tower,  Governor  Bradford's  monu- 
ment, graves  of  John  Howland  (1672) 
and  of  Dr.  Le  Baron.  Church  of  the 


Leyden  St.,  or  the 
century-and-a-hall 


cautiously  into  the  retreating  harbor  after  having  so  re- 
cently encountered  roaring  breakers  and  shoals  off  Cape 
Cod.  The  momentous  voyage  is  a  not  less  consequential 
step  toward  the  millennium  than  the  passage  of  the  Red  Sea. 

Proudly  her  sails  bear  the  little 
Republic  to  the  new  Plymouth  of 
freedom  and  hope.  She  leaves 
Cape  Cod  behind  in  sandy  grand- 
eur, and,  keeping  yonder  famous 
landmark,  Manomet  Mount,  under 
her  lee,  takes  her  difficult  course 
by  Saquish  Head,1  and,  rounding 
the  end  of  the  pencil-like  penin- 
sula, Plymouth  Beach,  she  comes 
to  safe  anchorage  in  the  Cow-Yard 
before  Patuxet,  signifying  "Little 
Bay." 

Gurnet's  Nose,  first  mentioned 
by  Roger  Williams,  tips  Duxbury 
Beach.  Its  fort  exchanged  shots 
in  '76  with  the  British  ship  Niger. 
The  fort,  built  during  the  Civil 
War,  was  named  for  Governor 
Andrew.  From  Gurnet  to  Plym- 
outh Rock  is  some  five  miles.  Northward,  the  Duxbury 
hills  ever  recalled,  to  Captain  Myles  Standish  and  his  good 


water  Bridge. 
First  St.,  with 
elms.  Doten  house  (1660),  Sand- 
wich St.  Harlow  house  (1667),  tim- 
bers from  the  "  Old  Fort."  Cole's 
Blacksmith  Shop  (1684).  "  The 
Clifford  "  farm-house,  birthplace  of 
James  Warren.  Clark's  Island,  with 
"  Election  "  Rock  or  Pulpit  Rock, 
which  sheltered  the  exploring  party 
here  "  On  the  Sabbath  day  wee 
rested  "  (inscription).  Morton  Park. 


Wellingsley    Brook,    trout 
Indian    Burying-ground. 


culture. 
Great 


South  and  Little  South  Ponds.  Long 
Pond,  Clam-Pudding  Pond,  and  "  a 
pond  for  every  day  in  the  year." 
Elijah's  Point.  Powder  Point 

Bridge.  The  Standish  Monument, 
Duxbury. 


1  Saquish  means  "plenty  of  clams,"  and  one  may  picture  Hobomok 
teaching  the  colony  how  to  fasten  a  clam-shell  to  a  stick,  Indian  fashion 
for  a  hoe.  The  clams  of  Cape  Cod  are  so  large,  sweet,  and  savory,  that 
Thoreau,  on  cooking  one  six  inches  long,  says  that  "with  the  addition  of 
a  cracker  or  two  it  would  have  been  a  bountiful  dinner." 

"One  of  the  old  Cod  could  not  believe  that  Thoreau  was  not  a  pedler; 
but  said,  after  explanation  failed,  'Well,  it  makes  no  odds  what  it  is. 
you  carry,  so  long  as  you  carry  truth  along  with  you.'"— Introductory 
Note  to  Thoreau' s  Cape  Cod. 


362  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

wife  Barbara,  the  Standish  family  seat,  Duxbury  Hall.  One 
hears  much  of  the  Captain's  diplomacy,  emphasized  by  his 
snaphance,  but  history  does  not  particularize  on  his  success 
in  arranging,  by  the  request  of  his  friend  Stephen  Hopkins, 
matrimonial  alliances  for  the  charming  Constance,  Deborah, 
Damaris,  Ruth,  and  Elizabeth  Hopkins. 

Inland,  beyond  Plymouth  woods,  lies  odd  little  Sandwich. 
The  first  iron  tea-kettle  was  made  about  1760,  in  Plympton, 
now  Carver,  once  a  part  of  Plymouth.  When  the  dames 
of  the  Old  Colony  went  out  to  afternoon  parties,  each  one 
carried  her  tiny  tea-cup  and  saucer  of  best  china,  and  a 
spoon.  The  west  trail  to  Namasket  (Middleborough), 
which  Edward  Winslow  and  Stephen  Hopkins  followed 
through  the  wilderness  on  their  embassy  to  Massasoit  in 
the  country  of  the  Wampanoags  (Wapan,  east;  ake,  land— 
the  land  east  of  Narraganset  Bay),  on  leaving  Plymouth 
crosses  the  beautiful  Watson  estate,  "Hillside,"  a  part  of 
which  is  the  enchanting  intervale,  Prence's  Bottom.  Mr. 
Goodwin,  in  his  Pilgrim  Republic,  says  that  Mr.  Watson  in- 
formed him  that  this  trail  passed  over  the  site  of  his  house. 
The  Pilgrims  who  followed  Town  Brook  up  to  its  source  in 
the  small  and  secluded  lake,  Billington  Sea,  were  disconso- 
late that  it  did  not  prove  to  be  a  branch  of  the  Hudson, 
which  was  then  supposed  to  be  a  great  strait,  making 
New  England  an  island. 

Town  Brook  played  a  most  effective  part  in  the  victory  of 
settlement.  To  stay  or  not  to  stay  was  decided  by  this 
clear  little  stream.  Along  its  banks  the  Pilgrims  raised  their 
thatched-roof  houses.  Mixed  with  its  pure  waters  were  the 
famous  possets  and  cowslip  wine  of  Priscilla, — sweet,  gay 
comforter  of  the  frail  Rose  and  other  sick  ones.  (It  is  whis- 
pered that  the  Priscillas  in  her  line  are  famous  cooks.)  On 
the  Town  Brook's  shore,  Massasoit 's  warriors  left  their 
weapons  before  pledging  the  first  American  International 


The  Mayflower 


363 


Treaty  with  Governor  Carver  in  the  loving-cup.  Again  the 
colonists  were  saved  from  starvation  by  Tisquantum,  who 
taught  them  to  fertilize  scanty  hills  of  corn  with  Town 
Brook  herring.  Best  of  all,  the  mayflower,  "darling  of 
bleak  New  England,"  lifted  its  dainty  head  among  the 
winter's  dried  bracken  just  in  time  to  carry  in  its  pink  per- 
fume dear  hopes  to  Priscilla  and  John  Alden,  the  first  of  a 


In  an  Old  Home  by  the  Sea. 
One  of  Plymouth's  Meresteads. 

long  following  to  keep  tryst  along  the  mossy  bank  of  Town 
Brook.  Then,  too,  in  the  words  of  Victor  Hugo,  "It  was 
the  month  of  March,  the  days  were  drawing  out,  winter  was 
departing,  and  it  always  takes  with  it  some  portion  of  our 
sorrow;  then  came  April,  that  daybreak  of  summer,  fresh 
as  every  dawn  and  gay  like  all  childhoods,  and  somewhat 
tearful  at  times.  Nature  in  that  month  has 


364  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

charming  beams  which  pass  from  the  sky,  the  clouds,  the 
trees,  the  fields,  and  the  flowers  into  the  human  heart." 

At  the  head  of  the  beach,  near  the  aforementioned  cliff, 
the  picturesque  farmhouse  of  the  old  Richard  Warren 
estate  overlooks  Eel  River  crawling  through  green  marshes. 
The  country  round  about  is  an  odoriferous  tangle  of  gray 
waxy  bayberries,1— -"quite  spicy  like  small  confectionery," 
— and  the  wild  rose  a  July  glory  of  our  rocky  pastures  from 
Maine  to  Nantucket.  Hither  James  Warren,  high  sheriff, 
brought  his  bride,  Mercy  Otis,  and  shortly  purchased  a 
gambrel-roof  on  the  corner  of  North  and  Main  streets 
in  the  village.  James  Warren,  in  his  quiet  way,  was  as 
influential  in  patriot  affairs  as  his  wife's  brother,  James  Otis, 
who  appeared  "a  flame  of  fire"  in  that  revolutionary 
speech  at  the  Old  Town  House  before  Hutchinson  and  the 
five  judges.  Warren  suggested  the  establishment  of  the 
Committees  of  Correspondence,  and  his  "tete-a-tete"  on 
paper  with  John  Adams  on  the  "complicated  subject  of 
Trade"  had  vital  issues: 

"Shall  we  hush  the  Trade  of  a  whole  Continent  and  not 
permit  one  Vessell  to  go  out  of  our  Harbours  except  from, 
one  Colony  to  another?"  writes  John  Adams  to  Warren, 
October  19,  1775.  "  How  long  will  or  can  our  People  bear 
this?  I  say  they  can  bear  it  forever — if  Parliament  should 
build  a  Wall  of  Brass,  at  low  water  Mark,  We  might  live 
and  be  happy.  .  .  .  Can  the  Inhabitants  of  North 
America  live  without  foreign  trade?  There  is  Beef,  Pork 

1  The  northern  Colonies  seldom  made  use  of  bayberry;  in  Virginia, 
however,  Beverly  says  that  of  the  berry  they  make  candles  which  are 
never  greasy  to  the  touch,  nor  melt  in  the  hottest  weather,  "neither  does 
the  snuff  ever  offend  the  smell  like  that  of  a  tallow  candle;  but,  instead 
of  being  disagreeable,  if  an  accident  puts  a  candle  out,  it  yields  a  pleasant 
fragrancy  .  .  .  nice  people  often  put  them  out  to  havt,  the  incense 
of  the  expiring  snuff." 


The  Bradford  MS.  365 

and  Poultry,  and  Mutton  and  Venison  and  Veal,  Milk, 
Butter,  Cheese,  Corn,  Barley,  Rye,  Wheat,  in  short  every 
Species  of  Eatables,  animal  and  Vegetable  in  immense  pro- 
fusion. .  .  .  But  cloathing. — If  instead  of  raising  Mil- 
lion Bushels  of  Wheat  for  Exportation  .  .  .  the  Hands 
now  employed  in  raising  surplusages  for  Exportation  were 
employed  in  raising  Flax  and  Wool,  and  manufacturing 
them  into  Cloathing,  we  should  be  cloathed  comfortably. 
.  .  .  We  must  at  first  indeed  Sacrifice  some  of  our 
Appetites,  Coffee,  Wine,  sugar,  Molasses,  &c.,  and  our  Dress 
would  not  be  so  elegant — Silks  and  velvets  &  Lace  must 
be  dispensed  with — But  these  are  Trifles  in  a  Contest  for 
Liberty." 

KINGSTON 

Journeying  north  over  the  Main  Street  toward  the  lovely 
heights  of  Kingston,  your  next  point  of"  vantage,  you  are 
bewitched  by  vistas  through  quaint  short  streets  ending  in 
blue  water.  Seeing  a  host  of  visitors  entering  Pilgrim  Hall 
recalls  a  story  told  the  author  by  a  Plymouth  boy,  that 
forty  years  ago  he  earned  many  a  stick  of  candy  by  running 
to  tell  the  custodian  at  the  grocery  of  a  chance  pilgrim 
waiting  before  the  door  of  the  Hall.  It  stands  on  the  land 
first  owned  by  Governor  Edward  Winslow,  and  later  by 
Governor  Bradford. 

The  original  manuscript  of  the  Log  of  the  "Mayflower,"  by 
William  Bradford,  is  now  in  the  capital  of  the  Old  Bay 
State,  by  the  courtesy  of  the  Bishop  of  London.  In  1728, 
Major  John  Bradford  had  given  Dr.  Prince  the  Bradford 
papers,  and  authorized  him  to  reclaim  the  History  from  Judge 
Sewall  and  deposit  it  in  the  "  Old  South."  It  disappeared  in 
Revolutionary  days,  and  was  discovered  fifty  years  later  in 
the  library  of  Fulham  Palace.  On  the  26th  of  May,  1897, 
Governor  Roger  Wolcott,  on  receiving  it  in  the  Hall  of 
Representatives  at  the  hands  of  Mr.  Bayard,  late  Ambassa- 
dor to  England,  said:  "  In  this  precious  volume  which  I  hold 


366  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 


in  my  hands — the  gift  of  England  to  the  Commonwealth 
of  Massachusetts — is  told  the  whole,  simple  story  of  '  Pli- 
mouth Plantation.'"  In  another  invaluable  contemporary 
work,  the  counsellor  of  the  Pilgrims,  Edward  Winslow, 
sends  to  the  mother  country,  Good  News  from  New  England 
or  a  true  Relation  of  things  very  remarkable  at  the  Plantation 
of  Plimouth  in  New  England.  A  rare  copy  is  preserved  in 
the  Boston  Public  Library. 

Kingston  was  the  Jones  River  Parish  of  Plymouth,  and 
its  Rocky  Nook  the  home  of  John  Howland  and  other  Pil- 
grims before  1636.  Howland  was  one  of  the  eight  "  Under- 
takers,"— William  Bradford,  Myles  Standish,  Isaac  Allerton, 
Edward  Winslow,  William  Brewster,  John  Alden,  and 

Thomas  Prence, — and  supervised 
the  laying  out  of  the  Massachu- 
setts Path,  the  road  to  the  Bay. 
The  pasture  land  allotments  ex- 
tended over  the  six  miles  between 
Jones  and  Eel  rivers,  Plymouth 
village  in  the  centre. 

The  most  interesting  reminis- 
cences of  Kingston,  named  by 
Governor  Dummer  on  the  28th  of 
May,  1717,  in  honor  of  the  birth- 
day of  King  George  I.,  are  con- 
nected with  the  old  ford  over 
crooked  Jones  River  and  the  ancient  estate  of  Governor 
William  Bradford,  owned  by  Dr.  Thomas  Bradford  Drew, 
until  formally  deeded  to  the  Society  of  Mayflower  De- 
scendants in  the  State  of  Massachusetts  as  a  memorial  to 
Governor  Bradford  and  his  son,  Major  William  Brad- 
ford. An  impressive  scene  was  the  funeral  procession  of 
Major  William  Bradford,  winding  along  the  shore  from 
Rocky  Nook  because  of  impassable  snow-bound  roads,  then 


KINGSTON 

LANDMARKS:  The  ancient  estate 
of  Governor  William  Bradford, 
Bradford  Road.  Nathan  Bradford 
house  (1766),  near  Summer  St. 
Chi'pman-Drew  house  (1745),  west 
side  of  Summer  St.  Foster-Bartlett 
house  (1720).  Major  Seth  Drew 
house.  Old  Meeting-House  (1798), 
steeples  Italian  style.  Willet-Brad- 
ford-Faunce  house  (1754),  above 
Forge  Bridge.  Gershom-Cobb-Bart- 
lett  house  (1754),  Main  St.  Rev. 
Joseph  Stacy-Bradford  house  (1721), 
at  fork  of  the  Bridgewater  and  Bos- 
ton roads.  Sampson  house  (1700). 
William  Sever  homestead  (1760), 
Linden  St.  Abraham's  Hill  Jones 
River  Pond  furnished  bog-ore  for 
bullets  for  Washington's  artillery. 


Kingston 


367 


by  the  Rock  and  up  Burial  Hill,  where  his  father  lay.  It 
was  remembered  by  Ebenezer  Cobb  of  Kingston,  who  died 
in  1 80 1,  aged  one  hundred  and  seven  years,  having  lived 
in  three  centuries.  Kingston  was  the  home  of  Thomas 
Willet,  one  of  the  ablest  men  of  Plymouth  County.  In 
1640,  Deacon  Paddy  suggested  that  a  college  be  built  at 


The  Home  of  Major  John  Bradford,  Kingston. 

In  this  house  was  kept  the  Bradford  MS.,  a  folio  with  parchment  back  of 

seven  and  one  half  inches  long  by  twelve,  with  some  scribblings 

of  his  little  daughier  Mercy  on  the  cover. 

Jones  River  Parish,  with  the  Rev.  Charles  Chauncey,  the 
future  President  of  Harvard,  as  master. 

Between  Kingston  and  Whitman  is  the  most  lovely 
group  of  lakes  in  the  Old  Colony:  Silver  Lake  in  Pembroke, 
Little  Sandy  Pond,  and  Indian  Head  Pond;  Bonney  Hill 


368  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

breaks  the  landscape  in  Hanson,  originally  a  part  of  Bridge- 
water,  where  many  old  homesteads  bear  Pilgrim  names. 


ABINGTON 


Abington,   originally  the  easterly  part  of  Bridgewater, 
includes  the  grants  of  Governor  Belcher  and  of  Peregrine 


Dyer  Homestead,  Whitman. 

White,  child  of  the  Mayflower,  the  first  Anglo-Saxon  born 
in  New  Plymouth.  The  tall  white-oak  trees  of  Abington 
were  the  delight  of  ship-builders,  and  Captain  Obadiah  Her- 
sey  furnished  planks  for  the  frigate  Constitution.  King 
James  took  care  to  have  the  finest  trees  branded  for  his  own 
ships,  and  many  a  British  flag  flew  over  American  timber. 
In  1698,  oxen  hauled  logs  to  the  "  Little  Comfort"  saw-mill. 


Abington  369 

whose  water-power  now  helps  feed  large  shoe  factories. 
Colonel  Aaron  Hobart  of  Abington  cast  the  first  bell  in  the 
Colony,  and  his  son  taught  the  art  to  Paul  Revere. 

South  Abington  (Whitman),  with  its  chimneys  so  huge 
that  a  child  can  sit  on  each  end  of  the  log  in  the  cavernous 
fireplaces  and  look  up  in  the  sky,  became  after  a  time  a 
separate  parish,  through  an  odd  church  controversy.  The 
tempest  arose  over  the  choice  of  a  chorister  leader;  and  one 
Sabbath,  to  the  astonishment  of  the  pastor  and  congrega- 
tion, two  leaders  and  two  choirs  appeared  in  the  galleries. 
A  hymn  was  sung  by  each  to  a  different  tune  at  the  same 
time.  Confusion  reigned,  and  the  pastor's  wife  fainted. 
An  attorney  took  the  names  of  the  delinquents  as  disturbers 
of  the  peace, — such  was  the  power  of  the  church  in  colonial 
town -government.  The  discord  not  abating,  South  Abing- 
ton (Whitman)  seceded  and  built  her  own  meeting-house. 
How  great  a  matter  is  kindled  from  a  little  fire !  Whitman's 
Washington  Street  is  a  bower  of  elms,  and  Rockland,  for- 
merly East  Abington,  the  home  of  Maria  Louise  Pool  for 
many  years,  has  pleasant,  wide,  shaded  streets  branching 
from  Lane's  Corner. 


Homestead  of  Dr.  Jabez  Fuller,  Kingston  (1778),  Great- 
great-grandson  of  the  Surgeon  of  the  "  Ma yflcnuer. " 
Residence  of  Edward  T.  Barker.  Esq. 


BRIDGEWATER,   1649-1656 

THE  latch-string  is  always  out  in  Bridgewater,  and  every 
gate  on  her  borders  opens  through  superb,  hospitable  elms 
as  old  as— well,  some  inquisitive  leaves  may  have  heard  of 
the  signing  away  of  this  great  territory  to  the  white  man  on 
Sachem's  Rock  in  1649,  by  the  mighty  Ousemaquin  (Mas- 
sasoit),  chief  sachem  of  the  Pokanoket  country.  Seven 
years  later  this  daughter  of  Duxbury  and  granddaughter  of 
Plymouth  was  called  Bridgewater,  a  fitting  appellation  for 
a  region  where  a  brook  crosses  every  path,  and  the  Satucket, 
Matfield,  and  Town  rivers  come  together  in  a  veritable 
"meeting  of  the  waters." 

Is  it  marvellous  that  King  Philip  chose  to  extend  his 
hunting-grounds  adjoining  Mt.  Hope  Bay  as  far  north  as 
East  Bridgewater?  The  red  men  love  water-paths,  because 
the  canoe  leaves  no  trail  and  it  is  easy  to  throw  the  keenest 
Narragansett  off  the  scent  by  treading  the  bed  of  a  stream. 
That  Bridgewater  was  popular  with  the  tribes  is  evident  by 
the  assembly  ground  and  a  curious  herring  weir  in  Satucket 
River.  Thoreau  speaks  of  "picking  up  a  few  arrowheads" 
in  Bridgewater  on  his  way  to  Cape  Cod,  and  the  plough 
turns  up  an  occasional  tomahawk  on  the  lovely,  peaceful 
shores  of  Nippenicket  Lake.  Tradition  says  that  King 
Philip  himself  came  within  a  feather  of  being  made  a  cap- 
tive when  fishing  in  Nunketetest  (Town)  River,  but  the 
most  wily  and  sagacious  of  chiefs  was  to  meet  his  fate  by 
the  hand  of  a  traitor  in  his  own  camp.  King  Philip  did  not 
enter  on  war  with  the  Colonists  willingly;  he  foresaw  the 
inevitable  finale,  but  the  younger  braves,  thirsting  for 
glory,  flung  down  the  hatchet. 

370 


Minister  Keith 


In  West  Bridgewater,  on  this  same  Town  River,  one  of 
the  countless  branches  of  the  Taunton,  is  the  stone  where 
good  Minister  Keith  preached  his 
first  sermon.  For  fifty-five  years 
he  went  his  rounds : 


"A  man  he  was  to  all  the  country 

dear, 

And    passing    rich    with     forty 
pounds  a  year." 

Minister  Keith's  first  deacon  was 
John  Willis  I ;  John  Ames,  Thomas 
Snell,  and  Edward  Mitchell  were 
chosen  "to  look  after  the  boys  on 
Sabbath  days  that  they  be  not  dis- 
orderly." "Mr.  Samuel  Edson  the 


1  John  Willis  was  one  of  the  original 
Proprietors,  and  Captain  Myles  Standish 
the  principal  member,  of  the  committee 
who  purchased  the  plantation  of  Bridge- 
water  from  Massasoit,  but  "lived  and 
died  at  the  foot  of  Captain's  Hill  in  Dux- 
bury."  From  Duxbury  came  the  other 
Proprietors.  Among  them  are  familiar 
Pilgrim  names, — William  Bassett  (one  of 
the  forefathers),  who  came  on  the  ship 
Fortune  in  1621;  John  Washburn,  the  first 
Secretary  of  the  Council  of  Plymouth  in 
England;  and  his  son  John,  who  married 
the  daughter  of  Experience  Mitchell,  who 
arrived  in  the  Anne  (Nahum  Mitchell,  the 
historian,  being  a  descendant) ;  Thomas 
Hayward  (the  Hon.  Elijah  Hayward,  Judge 
of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Ohio,  being  a 
descendant),  Henry  Howland,  Solomon 
Leonard,  Samuel  Eaton,  John  Gary,  Mr. 
Constant  Southwort,  Mr.  John  Alden, 
John  Ames,  William  Brett,  Thomas  Gan- 
nett John  Forbes  and  Arthur  Harris. 


BRIDGEWATER 

LANDMARKS:  Central  Square, 
Bridgewater  Inn.  Bridgewater  High 
School,  on  grounds  Bridgewater 
Academy,  founded  1799.  Home  of 
Colonel  Jo  si  ah  Edson,  an  absentee 
in  1775,  Central  Sq.  Withington 
house,  residence  of  Avery  Hooper. 
Bridgewater  State  Normal  School. 
Boyden  Park.  Major  Eliphalet  Cary 
house  (1767),  residence  Henry  Cov- 
ington.  Eleazer  Carver  house. 

Carver's  Pond.  Old  Burying-Ground. 
Rev.  John  Shaw  house  (1740),  Ply- 


mouth St. 

175   — • 


Hezekiah  Hooper  house, 
Alden   house,   High   St. 


Nathan   Lazell   house,   residence   of 


Paul    Revere,    Main    St. 
Church,  organized  1748. 


Trinity 
Old  Trin- 


Titicut  Bridge,  South  St.  Old 
Boston  and  New  Bedford  Turnpike, 
Broad  St.  and  Bedford  St.  Scotland 
Village.  Congregational  Church. 
House  of  A.  Waldo  Bassett,  Pilgrim 
Park  Station.  Bassett  homestead, 
residence  of  Daniel  Thrasher,  Lake- 
side Ave.  Leonard  homestead,  resi- 
dence of  J.  M.  Stetson,  Lakeside  Ave. 
Keith  homestead. 

EAST  BRIDGEWATER 
Washburn  Library,  gift  of  Cyrus 
Washburn.  Bartholomew  Brown 
and  Judge  Whitman  house  (1820). 
Sylvanus  Mitchell  house  (1820), 
birthplace  Prof.  E,  C.  Mitchell,  resi- 
dence Judge  B.  W.  Harris.  Rev. 
James  Flynt  and  Judge  Aaron  Hobart 
house  (1810),  residence  of  John  Ho- 
bart. Dr.  Asa  Millet  house,  on  site  of 
Rev.  John  Angier  house,  property  of 
Frank  D.  Millet.  Hugh  Orr  house  at 
Vinton  Corner;  inventor  of  spinning- 
machine;  made  first  solid  cannon. 
Matfield  River.  Deacon  John  Whit- 
man house  (1798) ;  Deacon  Whitman 
lived  to  one  hundred  and  six  years. 
Sachem's  Rock,  near  Carver  Cotton- 
Gin.  Satucket  River ;  ancient  Indian 
herring-weir,  in  West  Bridgewater. 


372  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 


WEST  BRIDGEWATER 
West  Bridgewater  Centre,  site  of 
original  settlement  of  the  town  of 
Bridgewater.  Soldiers'  Monument. 
Monumental  Stone,  supposed  site  of 
first  Meeting-House  (1656),  near 
residence  of  Francis  E.  Howard. 
Minister  James  Keith  homestead 
(1662-1678-1837).  Mill  Pasture 
Rock  (below  Saw-mill  on  river  bank), 
upon  which  Minister  Keith  preached 
his  first  sermon.  Judge  Daniel 
Howard  house,  South  St.  Old  Bury- 
ing-Ground,  South  St.  Howard 
Seminary,  Howard  St.  Grange  Hall, 
Main  St. 

Supplementary:  History  of  Bridge* 
water,  by  Nahum  Mitchell ;  Bridgewater, 
by  Joshua  E.  Crane,  Sen. 


miller,"1  from  Salem,  was  the  first 
man  of  Bridgewater  next  to  Minis- 
ter Keith.  Tradition  says  that 
when  sweet  Mary  Keith  gave  her 
heart  to  Ephraim  Howard,  her 
father  disapproved  of  the  match 
and  preached  from  the  text,  "  Eph- 
raim is  joined  to  idols  ;  let  him 
alone."  The  first  minister  of  the 
East  Parish  was  the  Reverend  John 
Angier,2  whose  son,  Oakes  Angier, 
read  law  with  President  John 
Adams  and  became  one  of  the  eminent  lawyers  of  Massa- 
chusetts. 

In  1756  there  was  not  a  silver  spoon  in  the  town,  and  in 
the  one  family  looking-glass  many  a  fair  maid  shyly  glanced 
before  mounting  her  pillion  to  amble  on  old  Dobbin  to 
meeting.  There  were  only  four  chaises  in  the  Old  Colony 
and  none  in  Bridgewater,  but  they  boasted  "four  chaires." 
An  old  account-book  bound  in  parchment  betrays  a  few 
weaknesses  of  our  Pilgrim  ancestors,  and  records  the  pur- 
chase of  "i  Gaus  handkerchief"  and  other  comforting 
"frivols"  of  the  feminine  heart;  it  is  a  relic  of  the  Bridge- 
water  country  store,  in  which  might  be  bought  everything, 
from  a  kid  glove  to  a  second-hand  pulpit,  and  paid  for 
"contra"  by  "  i  bushel  nuts  and  a  corn -husk  rug."  Mo- 
lasses is  not  more  commonly  entered  than  snuff  and  rum, 
the  customary  entertainment  at  house-raisings  and  even  at 
the  minister's  funeral, — but  that's  an  Ipswich  story. 

1  Samuel  Edson's  wife,  Susanna  Orcut,  was  of  "majestic  figure  and 
great  benignity."    The  Rev.  Theodore  Edson,  the  first  settled  minister  of 
Lowell,  and  rector  of  St..  Anne's  Church  for  sixty  years,  was  a  descendant. 

2  The  Rev.  John  Angier  was  a  great-grandson  of  the  Rev.  Urian  Oakes, 
President  of  Harvard  College. 


At  an  early  age  Bridgewater  began  her  celebrated  educa- 
tional interests,  donating  several  pounds  toward  the  found- 
ing of  Harvard  College,  and  many  a  student  was  fitted  for 
the  University  at  Old  Plymouth  County  Academy.  Her 
present  Normal  School  fills  its  purpose  in  the  most  complete 
way.  The  immense  building  includes  a  model  school,  and 
the  new  Massachusetts  Room  is  one  of  its  constantly  added 
advantages. 

At  the  "gathering  of  the  clans"  for  the  second  Centennial 
Celebration,  it  was  notable  how  many  sons  of  North,  East, 
South,  and  West  Bridgewater  had  become  distinguished, 
even  to  the  shores  of  the  Pacific.  The  pith  of  the  eloquent 
occasion  was  the  response  of  a  Pokanoket  Indian  to  a  toast 
to  Massasoit : 

"Brothers;  I  have  come  a  long  way  to  meet  you.  I  am 
glad  that  our  good  old  father,  Massasoit,  still  lives  in  your 
memory.  These  fields  were  once  the  hunting-grounds  of  the 
Red  Men,  but  they  were  sold  to  the  White  Men  of  Bridgewater. 
The  Red  Men  have  been  driven  toward  the  great  water  at  the 
West,  and  have  disappeared  like  the  dew,  while  the  White  Men 
have  become  like  the  leaves  on  the  trees  and  the  sands  on  the 
seashore. 

"Brothers,  our  hunting-grounds  grow  narrow;  the  chase 
grows  short,  and  before  another  Centennial  Celebration  of  the 
Incorporation  of  Bridgewater  our  bones  will  be  mingled  with 
the  dust. 

"Brothers,  may  we  live  in  peace.  And  may  the  Great 
Spirit  bless  the  Red  Men  and  the  White  Men." 

The  road  to  Taunton  by  way  of  Raynham  Centre  turns 
into  that  quaint  corner  of  Bridgewater  called  Scotland. 
Sailing  across  the  wide,  rippling  waters  of  Lake  Nippenicket, 
between  the  islands  "Little"  and  "Big,"  its  romantic 
beauty  is  tripled  by  gray  homesteads  'mid  fertile  farm- 
lands, and  by  the  traditions  of  King  Philip's  happier  days, 


The  Road  to  Taunton 


375 


when  one  may  fancy  him  and  attendant  hunters  in  the  pic- 
turesque fashion  of  Robin  Hood  and  his  Merry  Men,  bow 
in  hand,  bagging  a  dainty  duck  or  stripping  the  bark  from 
silver  birches  for  the  chief's  wigwam.  After  the  death  of 
King  Philip,  the  question  of  the  prisoners'  destiny  was 
brought  before  the  ministers  of  the  Colony ;  merciful  Minis- 
ter Keith  wished  to  spare  his  wife  and  little  son,  and  strongly 
opposed  the  lad's  being  sold  into  slavery  in  Bermuda. 

The  road  winds  and  winds  to  Raynham,  and  we  pass  all 


Memorial  Library,  Bridgewater. 

too  swiftly  under  great  elms,  ash,  and  locust  trees  laden 
with  odorous  blossoms,  always  with  glimpses  of  water  in  the 
landscape, — at  a  rustic  bridge  we  call  a  halt;  here  is  the 
site  of  the  famous  Anchor  Forge.  The  clear,  rushing  brook 
which  turned  the  mill-wheel  of  the  Old  Colony  Iron  Works 
alone  knows  the  story  of  its  owners — the  Leonards,  to  whom 
tradition  says  King  Philip  loyally  commanded  his  braves 
to  do  no  harm,  for  he  had  tasted  of  their  salt.  The  old 
Leonard  house,  of  five  gables  and  five  generations,  stood 


376  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

near  King  Philip's  hunting-lodge  on  Fowling  Pond  Road, 
which  swerves  prettily  to  the  right  a  mile  from  the  forge 
built  in  1652  by  James  and  Henry  Leonard  l  of  Pontipool, 
Wales,  Miss  Elizabeth  Pool  holding  many  shares.  The 
plentiful  bog-iron  fed  the  forge,  which  for  centuries  was  the 
week-day  clock  of  the  neighboring  villages.  Mr.  Samuel 


A  Pleasant  Pasture, 

Adams  Drake,  in  his  boyhood  days  at  Middleborough,  often 
heard  the  thud,  thud  of  the  great  trip-hammers  "hoisting 
the  great  water-gate." 

As  we  touch  Taunton  Great  River,  not  far  distant  is 

1  For  seven  generations  Leonards  were  connected  with  the  Taunton 
Raynham  Iron  Works.  "  Not  a  few  of  the  Leonards  have  been  of  renown, 
and  in  the  later  colonial  days  some  of  them  maintained  almost  baronial 
state." 


Brockton 


377 


"  Shallow  Water,"  a  noted  ford  in  the  Pilgrim's  day.  Pass- 
ing several  of  Taun ton's  fine  estates,  the  Taunton  Boat 
Club  House,  and  the  lovely  stone  church,  we  ride  to  the  his- 
toric Taunton  Green  over  the  road  which  Edward  Winslow 
and  Stephen  Hopkins  followed  through  Cohannet  (Place  of 


The  Colonial  Club  House,  Brockton. 

Snow)  in  1621,  as  ambassadors  to  the  Wampanoags'  council- 
fire  at  Sowams  (Warren,  R.  I.),  chief  seat  of  Massasoit. 

BROCKTON  (NORTH  BRIDGEWATER) 

Brockton  is  a  bright,  clean,  airy  city,  without  that  forced 
condensation  of  humanity  so  often  an  attribute  of  manu- 
facturing towns,  much  less  often,  however,  with  us  than  in 
older  countries ;  we  can  quickly  attain  the  open  fields,  and 
to-day  large  areas  of  land  are  set  aside  for  parks  near  every 


city.  The  outdoor  pleasure-ground,  Highland  Park,  in- 
cludes one  of  New  England's  "goodly  groves,"  and  the 
garden  effect  is  intensified  by  an  electric  fountain  which 
throws  up  water  figures  of  rainbow  hues.  During  St.  Mar- 
tin's summer,  when  the  leaves  are  a  ripe  red,  Brockton  holds 
her  harvest  fair,  a  successor  of  the  old-style  county  fairs 
established  by  the  farmers  to  promote  not  only  agriculture, 
but  social  and  political  life  in  scattered  country  districts. 
Like  Lynn,  the  city  is  devoted  to  shoe  manufacture,  and 
the  antiquarian  finds  few  visible  traces  of  kinship  to  old 
Bridgewater.  From  the  homestead  of  Dr.  Philip  Bryant 
at  Marshall's  Corners,  the  youth,  William  Cullen  Bryant, 
walked  daily  to  West  Bridgewater  to  peruse  musty  tomes 
from  the  law  library  of  the  Hon.  William  Baylies. 


STOUGHTON,  1650-1726 

IF  you  are  acquainted  with  the  Seal  of  Canton — an  un- 
usually significant  one  in  American  Heraldry — you  know 
the  relationship  of  three  old  towns:  that  Stoughton  was 
once  a  part  of  Dorchester,  and  Canton  a  part  of  Stoughton. 
The  crest  of  the  seal — the  castle  triple -towered — -is  that  used 
by  Dorchester,  England;  the  arms  are  those  of  Governor 
William  Stoughton,  for  whom  Stoughton  is  named;  the 
canton  of  particular  shape,  in  its  particular  corner  on  the 
right  of  the  shield,  is  a  happy  punning  allusion  to  the  name 
of  the  town.  On  the  border  surrounding  these  English 
devices  is  the  legend,  "  Ponkipog  1650.  Canton  1797." 
Thus  reading  through  heraldic  language,  you  have  advanced 
step  by  step  from  the  aboriginal  owners  of  the  soil  to  its 
present  American  denizens. 

Old  Stoughton  clung  long  to  English  customs,  and  once 
a  year  went  through  *the  ceremony  of  "perambulation"  or 
<(  beating  the  bounds ' '  of  the  town  by  the  substantial  citizens 
and  school-boys — in  England  led  by  the  parish  beadle ;  while 
the  curate  read  from  the  Psalm,  "  Cursed  be  he  which  trans- 
lateth  the  bounds  and  doles  of  his  neighbors."  These  were 
"Gauge  Days,"  and  occasionally  the  village  boys  were 
"'bumped" — swung  against  a  tree  or  stone — that  the  loca- 
tion of  the  boundary  might  forever  remembered  be.1  At 
Doty's  tavern  the  Suffolk  County  delegates  held  their  first 
meeting  leading  to  the  adoption  of  the  Suffolk  Resolves. 
After  that  celebrated  patriot  dinner  at  the  sign  of  the  Lib- 
erty Tree,  Dorchester,  the  company  rode  off  in  a  procession, 
"Mr.  Hancock  first  in  his  chariot,"  notes  John  Adams:  "I 

1  History  of  the  Town  of  Canton,  by  Daniel  T.  V.  Huntoon. 
379 


380  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

took  my  leave  of  the  gentlemen  and  turned  off  for  Taunt  on. 
Gated  at  Doty's  and  arrived  long  after  dark  at  Noices." 

The  Old  Musical  Society  of  Stoughton,  organized  some 
one  hundred  and  seventeen  years  ago,  held  on  Christmas 
day,  1902,  its  eightieth  annual  choral  to  celebrate  the 
nativity  of  Christ,  singing  the  old-time  Victory,  Majesty  and 
Chester  from  the  society's  centennial  collection  of  hymns 
used  at  the  World's  Fair  at  Chicago. 


TAUNTON  (COHANNET),  1637-1639 

EDWARD  WINSLOW  was  the  first  white  man  to  narrate  the 
customs  of  aboriginal  Cohannet,  unless  the  Norsemen  per- 
chance did  actually  journey  here,  and  inscribe  with  metallic 
tools  the  mysterious  hieroglyphics  on  Dighton  Rock  on  the 


Sabbatia  Park,  on  Sabbatia  Lake,  of  old  Scadding's  Pond, 
Taunton. 

east  bank  of  Titicut  (Taunton)  River ;  for  it  is  probable  that 
Narraganset  Bay  was  the  Vineland  described  in  their  sagas, 
and  that  Leif  and  Eric  explored  these  river  trails.  Winslow 
was  as  much  impressed  by  the  "exceeding  great"  chestnut 
trees  as  the  vikings  had  been  by  the  masses  of  wild  grapes, 

381 


382  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 


and  from  the  sign  language  of  the  Indian  guides, — two  of 
the  Namaskets  had  attached  themselves,  one  to  Winslow 

and  one  to  Hopkins  on  account  of 
some  little  gifts,  and  insisted  on 
carrying  them  across  the  brooks,— 
he  learned  of  the  grand  powwows 
on  the  Titicut's  banks  during  her- 
ring-time. The  Pilgrims  established 
a  trading-house  on  the  Taunton, 
and  Richard  Williams  and  Puritans 
from  Dorchester  built  their  homes 
under  the  great  chestnut  trees  on 
and  near  the  banks  of  the  river, 
and  the  Baylies,  Tisdales,  Mortons, 
Cobbs,  Crockers,  and  other  of  the 
first  families,  rode  over  the  famous 
Corduroy  Road  to  the  Green.  Miss 
Elizabeth  Pool,  a  noble  woman  of 
great  piety,  daughter  of  the  anti- 
quary, Sir  William  Pool,  showed 
such  enterprise  in  building  up  the  town  that  Captain  Stand- 
ish  and  John  Brown  were  sent  by  the  Court  to  lay  out  for 
her  a  grant  of  fifty  acres  of  upland.  She  had  come  down 
from  Dorchester  with  a  party  driving  their  cattle  through 
the  wilderness  soon  after  the  future  Governor  of  Connecticut 
and  founder  of  New  London,  John  Winthrop,  Jr.,  had  em- 
barked on  the  Taunton  River  for  Saybrook  at  the  mouth  of 
the  Connecticut,  Adrian  Block's  "Fresh  River,"  where  he 
had  obtained  of  England  a  commission  to  found  his  fort. 
Miss  Pool's  brother-in-law,  the  Rev.  Nicholas  Street,  was  an 
eminent  preacher  of  Taunton,  as  were  his  successors,  George 
Shove  and  Samuel  Danforth. 

Taunton  was  one  of  the  first  political  offenders  in  the 
general  protest  against  tyranny,  the  Town-Clerk,  Shadrach 


TAUNTON 

LANDMARKS:  Historical  Hall.  Old 
Colony  Historical  Society.  Trescott 
house,  Trescott  St.  First  Congrega- 
tional Church;  near  the  site  of  First 
Church.  Captain  Timothy  Gordon 
house;  built  by  Rev.  Thomas  Clap, 
in  1 730.  Captain  Joseph  Hall  house, 
Dean  St.  Ensign  Thomas  Dean 
house  (1723);  elms  planted,  1745- 
Neck  -  of  -  Land  Burying  Ground. 
"  Kippenwoods,"  Mrs.  Nathalie  Bay- 
lies house.  John  Godfrey  home- 
stead, County  St  The  Major  Wil- 
liam Seaver  Stone  Pottery,  first  in 
Bristol  County ;  Indians  brought  the 
clay  from  Gay  Head  in  canoes  ( 1 772) . 
Captain  Abiathar  Williams  house, 
Ingell  St.  McKinstrey  house,  High 
St.  Grossman  homestead,  Cohannet 
St.;  home  of  Colonel  Robert  Cross- 
man,  on  site  of  house  (1690).  Foster 
house,  High  St.  Reed  house,  Oak  St. 
(1762).  Robert  Luscomb  house 
(.pure  colonial),  Cohannet  St.;  school 


prior     to 
Springs. 


Revolution.     Woodward 


Taunton 


383 


Historical  Hall,  Taunton. 


Wilbor,  being  thrown  into  prison  for  his  temerity  in  refus- 
ing to  deliver  up  the    records    of   Taunton  to   Governor 
Andros.      Both  Qua- 
ker and  Puritan  con- 
scientiously    refused 
the    luxuries   of   life. 
A  Quaker  was  "read 
out  of  meeting"  be- 
cause he  purchased  a 
piano  for  his  daugh- 
ter,  and  the   church 
in  Berkley  refused  to 
receive  an  organ  from 
Bishop  Berkeley,  for 
whom    the    new   di- 
vision of  Taunton  was  named.     The  Newport  church,  how- 
ever, accepted  the  gift,  and  it  is  in  "Old  Trinity"  to  this 
day. 

The  most  representative  piece  of  past  Taunton,  except  the 
old  Village  Green,  is 
Historical  Hall,  con- 
taining many  fi  n  e 
portraits ;  the  Old 
Colony  Historical 
Society  was  organ- 
ized in  1853  in  the 
study  of  the  Rev.  S. 
Hopkins  Emery.  Our 
"  town-on-the-river  " 
fraternizes  with  old 
Taunton  of  England,  Morton  Hospital. 

her    namesake,     and  Home  of  Governor  Marcus  Morton. 

congratulations  are  extended  over  important  events. 
Taunton  Green  on  which  for  the  first  time  the  American 


384  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

flag  was  unfurled  for  liberty  is  soon  to  be  further  dis- 
tinguished by  the  erection  of  a  statue  l  by  Niehaus,  on  the 
site  of  the  homestead  built  by  James  Leonard  in  1653,  in 
memory  of  the  lions  of  industry,  James  and  Henry  Leon- 
ard, immigrants  from  Pontipool,  Monmouthshire,  whose 
"bloomerie"  on  Two-mile  River  was  the  first  successful 
iron-foundry  on  the  American  continent.  They  had  previ- 
ously assisted  at  two  earlier  foundries,  one  established  in 
1643  by  John  Winthrop,  Jr.,  on  the  Saugus  (Lynn),  and 
one  on  the  Monatiquot  (Braintree). 

Of  Daniel  Leonard  of  Taunton,  a  member  of  the  House 
of  Representatives,  John  Adams  says:  "he  wore  a  broad 
gold  lace  round  the  brim  of  his  hat,  he  had  made  his  cloak 
glitter  with  lace  still  broader,  he  had  set  up  his  chariot  and 
pair,  and  constantly  travelled  in  it  from  Taunton  to  Bos- 
ton." Daniel  Leonard  belonged  to  a  Boston  club  with 
Josiah  Quincy  and  others,  which  collected  arguments  for 
and  against  the  right  of  Parliament  to  tax  the  colonists ;  he 
finally  took  the  Tory  view,  and  removing  to  Bermuda,  be- 
came its  Chief  Justice. 

1  To  be  erected  by  the  Leonard  family  association.  Among  the  mem- 
bers and  officers  of  this  widespread  connection  are  the  Honorable  John 
Hay,  Secretary  of  State;  Lewis  A.  Leonard  of  New  York;  the  Honorable 
Robert  Treat  Paine  of  Boston;  F.  C.  Leonard  of  London,  Canada;  S.  C. 
Leonard  of  Detroit ;  Henry  Lovering  of  Taunton;  and  Job  M.  Leonard 
of  Fall  River. 


NORTH    EASTON 

EASTON  belongs  to  the  Taunton  North  Purchase  of  1668; 
the  oldest  house  was  built  by  Josiah  Keith,  son  of  the  Rev. 
James  Keith  of  Bridgewater.  Above  the  pines  appear  the 
spires  of  North  Easton,  one  of  the  loveliest  towns  in  the 
country.  Long  stretches  of  velvet  turf,  vine-clad  walls, 
attractive  buildings,  give  it  such  an  air  of  elegance  and 
finish  that  one  might  easily  believe  that  it  had  been  some 
English  hamlet  transported  from  its  ancient  environment 
and  set  down  in  the  New  World,  only  lacking  the  ruins  of 
an  abbey  to  complete  the  illusion,  for,  as  Lord  Fauntleroy 
says,  more  than  one  gentleman  "lives  a  long  way  from  his 
gate."  It  is  a  joy  to  find  the  art  of  such  a  landscape-gar- 
dener as  Olmsted  adding  to  the  dignity  and  beauty  of  the 
architecture  of  Richardson  and  Mitchell.  The  crudeness  of 
the  new  American  town  is  lacking  here,  and  we  sigh  for  more 
unity  of  purpose  in  our  beginnings  and  less  haste ;  our  fron- 
tier virtues  are  sometimes  quite  hidden  by  the  frontier 
American  fault, — -the  necessity  to  do  something  and  get  it 
done  quickly. 

Unity  Church  T  is  rich  in  memorial  gifts  of  extraordinary 
beauty.  A  marble  tablet,  the  reproduction  of  one  in  St. 
George's  Chapel,  Windsor,  is  most  appropriate  in  its  sim- 
plicity, and  a  pulpit  and  screen  by  Vaughn  add  to  the  dig- 

1  The  Unity  Church  and  Parsonage  and  the  Ames  Free  Library  are  the 
gift  of  Oliver  Ames.  The  Ames  Memorial  Hall,  built  by  the  children  of 
Oakes  Ames  as  a  memorial  to  their  father  and  designed  by  Richardson, 
contains  a  painting  from  the  old  Booth's  Theatre  of  New  York.  The 
High  School  building  and  the  railway  station  were  built  by  Governor 
Ames  and  Frederick  L.  Ames.  The  homestead  of  the  original  Oliver 
Ames,  who  came  from  Bridgewater  in  1803,  was  later  the  home  of  the 
Hon.  Oakes  Ames,  builder  of  the  Pacific  Railroad. 

385 


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North  Easton  387 

nity  of  the  chancel.  The  La  Farge  windows  with  exquisite 
mosaic  background  are  masterpieces,  and  contrasting  the 
artist's  early  and  later  manner.  One  expresses  great  deli- 
cacy of  sentiment,  as  it  were,  the  far-away  music  of  angel 
choirs;  the  strong  figures  and  unusual  receding  cathedral 
columns  of  the  other  seem  to  echo  with  the  peal  of  life's 
storm  from  some  great  organ.  The  former  is  a  memorial  to 
Helen  Angier  Ames,  and  the  latter  to  the  brothers  Governor 
Oliver  Ames  and  Oakes  Angier  Ames.  A  statue  by  Kraus 
in  the  cemetery  is  dedicated  to  Governor  Ames. 

In  the  centre  of  the  town  is  a  Cairn  or  Rockery,  and  south 
a  charmingly  simple  and  appropriate  building,  the  Gymna- 
sium, devoted  to  the  use  of  the  children  of  North  Easton  by 
Mrs.  Oliver  Ames,  and  designed  by  Guy  Lowell.  Perhaps 
the  most  lovely  stretch  of  landscape  is  that  on  approaching 
the  south  entrance  of  "  Langwater,"  the  Frederick  L.  Ames 
estate. 

All  this  beauty  has  grown  out  of  a  sincere  resolve  made  by 
the  first  shovel-maker  that  none  but  honest,  solid  shovels 
should  be  sent  out  of  his  shop.  James  Freeman  Clarke  says 
that  the  first  Oliver  Ames,  when  handling  a  heavy  though 
well-fashioned  British  shovel,  observed,  "  Iron  is  cheaper 
than  muscle,"  and  resolved  to  make  a  lighter  shovel,  though 
it  would  not  wear  as  long.  A  few  years  later  in  Australia 
his  shovel  became  the  reigning  favorite.  These  most  exten- 
sive shovel-works  in  the  world,  utilizing  the  water-power  of 
the  heads  of  Taunton  River,  were  antedated  by  hand- 
shaped  shovels  turned  out  by  that  fine  old  blacksmith  of 
Bridgewater,  John  Ames,  in  1776.  "In  a  little  cake  of 
Norway  iron,  about  as  long  as  a  man's  hand,  we  have  the 
prospective  shovel  whose  destiny  it  may  be  to  turn  up  the 
'  biggest  nugget'  the  world  ever  saw,  or  break  ground  for 
the  grandest  enterprise  man  ever  conceived,"  says  Dr.  Azel 
Ames  after  A  Day  with  the  Shovel  Makers. 


DIGHTON 

• 

DAME  FRANCES  DIGHTON  gave  her  name  to  Dighton,  she 
being  the  wife  of  Richard  Williams,  the  "Father  of  Taun- 
ton,"  and  Dighton  being  a  portion  of  the  "Taunton  South 
Purchase."  Winslow  passed  this  way  on  his  two  embassies 
from  Plymouth  to  Massasoit,  following  the  Taunton  River 
trail  through  Dighton  and  Somerset  as  far  as  the  present 
Slade's  Ferry  in  Swansea  on  the  edge  of  Fall  River.  On  the 
second  journey,  accompanied  by  Hobomok  as  interpreter,  he 
paid  a  visit  to  Corbitant's  dwelling  in  Mattapoiset  (Gardner's 
Neck,  Swansea),  and  was  received  with  hospitality  by  the 
squaw  sachem,  Corbitant  having  gone  to  visit  the  sick  chief 
Massasoit.  Winslow  arrived  at  Sowams  just  in  time  to  save 
the  life  of  Massasoit  by  a  skilful  use  of  herbs,  and  sent  to 
Plymouth  for  chickens  to  make  him  broth.  The  recovering 
chief  said:  " Now  I  see  the  English  are  my  friends  and  love 
me ;  and  while  I  live  I  will  never  forget  this  kindness  they 
have  showed  me." 

Should  you  inquire  of  a  passer-by,  for  what  is  Dighton 
famous,  his  reply  would  doubtless  correspond  to  his  hobby. 
The  antiquarian  would  reply :  ' '  The  Dighton  Writing  Rock, 
by  all  means,"  situated  across  Taunton  Great  River  in 
Berkley,  whose  curious  inscription  is  wearing  away  with 
the  action  of  the  water;  an  artist  would  point  out  to  you 
symmetrical  lindens  and  elms  lining  up  along  the  river  road 
for  miles,  towering  above  oddest  doorways  and  the  pic- 
turesque network  of  stone  walls,  which  are  noticeably  flat 
and  wide  to  one  accustomed  to  the  rough,  rounding  stones 
on  the  New  Hampshire  border;  a  soldier  remembers  that 
Dighton  was  the  home  of  the  Hon.  Hodijah  Baylies,  an  aide- 

388 


o 


DIGHTON 

LANDMARKS:  Richmond  house, 
Chase  residence.  Judge  Hodijah 
Baylies  house  (1770),  property  of 
Charles  N.  Simmons.  Pedo-Baptist, 
First  Congregational  Society  (Uni- 
tarian) (1770).  Hathaway, — Dr. 
Charles  Talbot  house,  Lower  Four 
Corners,  Horton  residence.  Baptist 
Church.  Causeway  (1781),  Muddy 
Cove.  Richmond  Hill,  view  forty 
spires,  the  Cumberland  and  Blue 
Hills  and  Mount  Hope.  Elkanah 
Andrews  house.  Andrews,  De  Wolf e- 
Spooner  house.  Gardener  Luther 
house,  Eddy  residence.  Perry 
homestead.  Dighton  Rock  Park. 
Hart  Farm,  Hunter's  Hill.  Broad 
Cove  Bridge. 


39°  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

de-camp  of  General  Washington ;  the  geologist  finds  unusual 
glacial  marks,  and  signs  that  an  iceberg  rested  just  here  back 

of  the  Unitarian  Church,  formerly 
the  Pedo-Baptist  First  Congrega- 
tional Society  of  strange  history; 
the  upper  of  its  double  galleries 
was  used  for  slaves,  and  the  church 
transformed  into  a  sheep-pen  dur- 
ing the  Revolution.  The  greatest 
charm  is  its  romantic  stile  of  worn 
stepping-stones,  the  only  one  of 
which  we  know  in  the  Old  Colony. 
Assonet  Neck,  where  the  Assonet 
meets  the  Taunton  just  below 
Dighton  Rock  Park,  was  an  im- 
portant port  during  the  blockade  of  Boston  Harbor,  sup- 
plies for  the  troops  being  landed  here  from  small  vessels, 
loaded  into  ox-teams,  and  carted  overland  to  Boston.  The 
beauty  of  Muddy  Cove  at  high  tide  belies  its  name;  and 
here  Taunton  River  widens  into  a  lake,  yachts,  like  sea- 
gulls, flit  back  and  forth  between  the  Taunton  Yacht  Club 
House  and  Mount  Hope  Bay.  Some  hearty  old  river  pilot 
will  spin  for  you  impressive  yarns  concerning  the  many 
ships  which  touched  the  wharves  at  this  prosperous  port 
of  entry  long  ago;  and  of  that  wonderful  "great  catch" 
when  "  my  father  hauled  in  five  hundred  and  six  shad  at  one 
sweep  and  twenty  thousand  herring  at  another." 

The  fish  tales  are  now  all  strawberry  stories,  and  even  the 
Portuguese  who  pick  the  delicious  fruits  of  Dighton  and 
Somerset  would  be  amazed  to  hear  that  by  actual  calcula- 
tion, after  the  fashion  of  childhood's  dreaded  problems 
in  Colburris  Arithmetic,  if  the  boxes  of  berries  sent  to 
market  in  one  season  from  Dighton  station  were  set  side  by 
side,  they  would  reach  from  Dighton  to  Fall  River ;  or,  if  a 


Strawberries  in  June 


box  an  hour  were  eaten  night  and  day,  it  would  be  seven 
hundred  years  before  one  would  arrive  at  the  last  box. 

"Tell  you  what  I  like  the  best: 

'Long  about  knee-deep  in  June, 
'Bout  the  time  the  strawberry  melts 

On  the  vine, — some  afternoon, 
Like  to  i'es'  git  out  and  rest, 
And  not  work  at  nothin'  else!" 

JAMES  WHITCOMB  RILEY. 


On  the  Banks  of  Cole's  River,  the  Water-'^ay  lying  between  Kickemuit 
and  Mattapoiset  (Gardner's  Neck),  where  dwelt  Corbitant,  Chief. 


SOMERSET 


SOMERSET 

LANDMARKS:  Perry  house  (1728), 
near  Station,  Bowers  Shore  Road. 
Palmer  house  (i?S3).  Captain  Henry 
Bragg  homestead  (1780).  Lyman 
Davis  house.  Davis  homestead. 
James  Chase  homestead  (1788). 
John  Hood  house  (1796).  Luther 
Perry  house  (1798),  corner  Bap- 
tist Lane.  Bowers-Somerset  house 
with  Great  Elm,  corner  South  and 
Main  streets.  Labor-in- Vain  Brook. 
Baptist  Church  (1804).  Old  Borland 
Tomb;  burial-place  of  sons  of  Dr. 
Francis  Borland.  Old  Bonne  Grave- 
yard, Upper  Road.  Jonathan  Buf- 
fington  Farm  (1698).  Slade  Ferry 
Bridge.  The  Slade,  Brayton,  and 
Daniel  Wilbur  Farms. 


THE  long,  little  town  of  Somerset,  of  old  the  Shewamet 
lands  of  Swansea,  extends  eight  miles  along  Taunton  River  to 

the  head  of  beautiful  Mount  Hope 
Bay.  From  the  Upper  Road,  with 
its  old  and  fertile  farms,  the  land 
slopes  with  picturesque  effect  to- 
ward the  river;  across  the  broad 
stream  spanned  by  several  bridges, 
its  black  mud-bed  dotted  with 
clam-diggers  at  low  tide,  its  Steep 
Bridge  of  ancient  Freetown  and  its 
modern  daughter,  the  city  of  Fall 
River,  whose  many  tall  chimneys 
tell  a  story  of  successful  manu- 
factories. Government  ships  used 
to  be  launched  at  Somerset  wharves,  and  the  Hood  ship- 
yard was  alive  with  sailors;  shipping  interests  have  been 
supplanted  by  the  Mount  Hope  Iron  Works,  and  few  sea- 
captains  now  live  under  the  gambrel-roofs  on  Bowers  Shore 
Road.  The  five-masted  schooner,  Governor  Ames,  until  re- 
cently the  largest  schooner  afloat,  is  owned  by  the  Captains 
Cornelius  and  Joseph  Davis  of  Somerset. 

After  King  Philip's  War,  Jonathan  Bowers  and  William 
Slade  returned  from  Newport  to  find  rude,  cave-like  dwell- 
ings on  the  side  of  these  steep  river  banks,  inhabited  by 
refugees  from  Captain  Church's  ranks.  Colonel  Jerathmel 
Bowers,  who  acquired  great  wealth  by  transporting  stock  to 
the  West  Indies,  was  a  notable  man  of  the  olden  time;  also 
Elisha  Slade,  minister,  major,  schoolmaster,  and  postmaster, 
and  Benjamin  Weaver,  who  owned  "Egypt,"  a  part  of 
Somerset. 


392 


SWANSEA 

MANY  rivers  flowing  into  the  two  beautiful  bays,  Mount 
Hope  and  Narraganset,  create  a  jagged  water-front  of  the 
adjoining  shores  of  southeastern  Massachusetts  and  Rhode 
Island.  A  sweet  and  balmy  air  with  a  slight  sea  tang 
sweeps  over  the  five  picturesque  necks  of  land  lying  between 
Taunton  Great  River  and  Providence  River,  separated  by 


July  on  the  River. 

rivers   and  arms  of  the  bays.     These  composed  the  fine 
township  of  old  Swansea. 

Of  the  little  rivers  between,  Lee's  River  [next  the  Taun- 
ton] lies  between  Shewamet  Neck  [Somerset]  and  Swansea. 
Cole's  River  of  South  Swansea  has  Gardner's  Neck  on  its 

394 


Swansea 


395 


east  bank  and  Kickemuit  on  the  west  bank.  Warren  River 
separates  Kickemuit  from  New  Meadow  Neck ;  Wanamoiset 
Neck  is  bounded  by  the  Warren 
and  Barrington  rivers.  Again, 
Kickemuit  River,  crossing  Kick- 
emuit, makes  Mount  Hope  Neck 
and  Toweset  Neck. 

On  New  Meadow  Neck  stood 
Pastor  Myles's  little  church,  where 
the  people  were  at  worship  when 
their  houses  were  rifled  at  the 
opening  of  King  Philip's  War;  the 
church  was  moved  across  the  ice  to 
North  Swansea,  near  Myles's  Garri- 
son, in  that  part  of  Swansea  now 
called  Barney ville,  from  the  once 
flourishing  shipyard  of  Mason  Bar- 
ney.1 This  was  the  first  little  Bap- 
tist church  outside  of  Rhode  Island, 
and  its  door  stone  is  the  horse-block 
of  the  present  church.  Pastor 
Myles's  former  church  in  Swansea, 
Wales,  prospered  greatly  during  the 
Cromwell  protectorate,  but  on  the 
restoration  of  the  throne,  John 
Myles  was  one  of  two  thousand 
ministers  of  England  to  seek  a  new 
land  to  gain  freedom  of  conscience. 

On  the  twentieth  of  June,  1675,  the  too  trustful  pioneers 
had  carelessly  assembled  to  listen  to  their  preacher's  able 
discourse. 

1  It  was  said  that  Mr.  Barney  built  more  ships  than  any  man  in  the 
United  States.  He  was  most  hospitable,  and  having  several  beautiful 
daughters  the  beaux  flocked  here  from  all  the  country  round. 


SWANSEA 

LANDMARKS:  Israel  Brayton 
house.  Gray's  Tavern;  old  stopping 
place  of  the  Providence  Stage.  Abra- 
ham's Rock.  Roxbury  Pudding- 
stone,  view  Narraganset  Bay  and 
Mount  Hope.  Hill- Joseph  F.  Chase 
house  (1679)  9  residence  of  Mrs. 
Katharine  F.  Gardner.  Elder  Philip 
Slade  house,  residence  Lewis  S. 
Gray.  Dr.  John  Winslow- Welling- 
ton house.  Mason-Northam  house. 
Christ  Church,  organized  1846; 
building  a  gift  of  the  Hon.  Frank 
Shaw  Stevens.  Frank  S.  Stevens 
Public  Library  Building.  Mill  Pond, 
Uncle  Sam's  brook.  Milford  Pond, 
site  old  grist-mill,  founded  1806  by 
Oliver  Chace.  "  Peek-a-Boo,"  here 
tradition  of  Indian  and  white  man 
attempting  to  "  sight  "  each  other 
from  behind  two  trees.  Swazey's 
Corner.  "  Buttonwood,"  first  Post- 
Office  site  (1800).  Luther's  Corner, 
now  Swansea  Centre.  Here  passen- 
gers were  transferred  to  the  Warren 
stage.  Preserved  Gardner  house, 
Covell  summer  residence.  Job 
Gardner  house,  Gardner's  Neck. 
Captain  Henry  Gardner  homestead. 
Bushee  or  Poverty  Corner,  Devil's 
Rock  with  hoof-marks.  Bushee 
homestead,  residence  Enoch  Chace. 
Spinning  Rock.  Mason  Barney 
house  (1802).  Myles's  Garrison  and 
Myles's  Bridge  ovei  Palmer's  -River. 
Barneyville,  old  shipyard.  Peck 
house.  Medbury  house.  Upper  Lu- 
ther's Corners.  Governor  John  W. 
Davis's  birthplace;  residence  Elisha 
Davis,  South  Rehoboth. 


396  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

The  Indians  of  Philip's  tribe  were  becoming  more  and 
more  impatient  of  loss  of  land ;  when  Winslow  crossed  this 
territory  over  the  forty-two-miles  trail  from  Plymouth  to 
Myles's  garrison  and  beyond  to  Warren,  it  belonged  in 
entirety  to  Massasoit,  and  was  fairly  bought  from  him  parcel 
by  parcel  till  his  son  Philip  was  gradually  shut  up  with  his 
people  in  Mount  Hope,  their  only  land  route  lying  over  the 
white  man's  road  through  Swansea,  with,  perhaps,  the  white 
man's  dog  barking  at  his  heels.  The  warriors  urged  Philip 
to  allow  them  to  annoy  the  English  by  killing  their  cattle, 
thus  hoping  to  provoke  the  English  to  commence  the  at- 
tack, as  they  had  a  superstitious  idea  that  the  party  which 
began  first  would  finally  be  conquered.  The  whites  could 
hardly  believe  that  the  Indians  who  had  received  such  uni- 
form kindness  from  them,  especially  from  the  founder  of 
Swansea,  Captain  Willet l  and  his  family,  could  so  suddenly 
be  transformed  into  enemies,  and  neglected  ordinary  pre- 
caution. 

On  this  Sunday  Philip  had  granted  his  promised  permis- 
sion, and  the  Indians  at  once  began  depredations ;  so  insolent 
were  they  in  demanding  liquor  that  the  only  Englishman 
who  was  not  at  church  lost  his  temper  and  wounded  one- 
of  them,  which  gave  the  signal  for  the  Indians  openly  to 

1  Thomas  Willet,  the  founder  of  Swansea,  and  the  first  English  mayor 
of  New  York,  was  a  diplomat,  a  model  of  fairness,  and  altogether  an 
extraordinary  man,  appealed  to  by  Dutch,  English,  and  Indians  alike. 
Probably  the  grandson  of  the  Canon  of  Ely,  he  was  a  son  of  Dr.  Andrew 
Willet,  rector  of  Barley,  imprisoned  for  preaching  against  the  proposed 
"Spanish  match"  of  Charles  I.  Captain  Willet's  magnetism  and  wide 
knowledge  of  languages  and  human  nature  and  residence  in  Holland  gave 
him  such  a  knowledge  of  Dutch  customs  and  usages  that  he  was  invaluable 
in  organizing  the  new  government  at  Manhattan;  even  then  in  the  me- 
tropolis, eighteen  languages  were  spoken ;  to-day,  children  speaking 
twenty-five  tongues  gather  at  one  school  to  be  transformed  into  American 
citizens.  Captain  Willet  married  the  daughter  of  the  Magistrate  John 
Brown,  for  twelve  years  a  Colonial  Commissioner;  his  son,  Major  John 
Brown  of  Swansea,  ensign  of  the  Rehoboth  train-band,  married  Lydia,  a 
daughter  of  John  Rowland,  the  Pilgrim. 


Philip  Opens  War 


397 


begin  war,  and  men  were  shot  here  and  there.     The  in- 
habitants of  Rehoboth  and  Swansea  sent  a  messenger  to 


The  Christian  Church,  Swansea  Centre,  established  1682.  For  one  hun- 
dred and  seven  consecutive  years  the  pastoral  office  was  filled  by  a  son  or  grand- 
son of  Samson  Mason,  a  soldier  under  Cromwell,  who  settled  at  Rehoboth. 

Plymouth  for  aid,  and  took  refuge  in  the  "Three  houses," 
their    strongest    garrisons;    one    was    "Woodcock's,"    the 


398  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

famous  garrison  which  stood  until  1806  on  the  Boston  and 
Providence  turnpike  in  Attleborough,  one  at  Seekonk  Plain, 
and  Myles  's  garrison  in  Swansea.  Smaller  garrisons  were 
Major  Brown's  and  Mr.  Welcome  Allen's,  near  Orleans 
Factory  in  Rehoboth.  They  were  obliged  to  desert  Jared 
Bourne's  stone  house,  which  stood  in  an  exposed  position  on 
Mettapoiset  (Gardner's)  Neck,  then  owned  by  Governor 
Brenton,  after  six  men  were  killed  while  going  to  the  barn 
for  corn.  Major  Savage's  Massachusetts  troops  marched 
to  the  rescue.  Captain  Henchman  and  Captain  Prentice 
waited  at  Woodcock's  in  Rehoboth  for  Captain  Samuel 
Mosely ;  observing  an  eclipse  of  the  moon,  some  of  the  sol- 
diers discerned  in  a  black  spot  on  the  face  a  resemblance  to 
the  scalp  of  an  Indian,  others  fancied  they  saw  an  Indian 
bow.  And  during  thirteen  moons  thereafter  the  Bay  State 
was  defaced  by  a  slaughter  too  frightful  for  words. 

Among  the  traditions  of  Allen's  garrison  is  that  of  a 
woman  "turning  cheese";  wishing  more  light,  she  moved 
back  the  boards  of  the  window,  and  instantly,  as  she  raised 
the  cheese,  a  ball  passed  through  it,  shot  by  a  prowling 
Indian.  A  few  days  later  the  cows  did  not  return  at  even- 
ing, the  Indians  having  hindered  them,  hoping  to  draw  the 
men  out  of  the  garrison  as  they  did  at  Squannagonick  Falls, 
New  Hampshire,  by  imitating  the  grunting  of  pigs.  The 
white  men  had  learned  cunning,  too,  and  one,  taking  his 
loaded  musket,  stood  at  the  door,  while  another  placed  a 
lighted  candle  in  one  of  the  port-holes,  retreating  quickly  as 
the  wind  from  a  whizzing  ball  extinguished  the  blaze.  The 
man  at  the  door  fired  at  the  flash,  and  his  ball  grazed  the 
length  of  the  Indian's  back  as  he  leaned  forward,  wounding; 
him  severely. 

Swansea  is  a  most  attractive  town,  and  Gardner's  Neck 
very   lovely  with   old   farms   and   new   summer  cottages. 


Swansea 


399 


Driving  inland  toward  South  Rehoboth,  three  bars  here  and 
there,  held  by  horseshoes,  shower  good-luck  and  guard  the 
apple  orchards.  You  may  chance  on  a  fox  hunt  in  full  chase, 
meet  a  solitary  grimalkin  hunter  carrying  a  fat  quail,  or 
perchance  a  deer  driven  down  from  Plymouth  by  a  forest 
fire.  In  travelling  from  Fall  River  by  the  old  stage  route 


The  Town  Hall,  Swansea.     On  site  of  old  Union  Meeting- House.     Gift 
of  Frank  Shaw  Stevens. 

to  Providence  you  cross  the  Taunton  at  Slade's  Ferry,  the 
ancient  Indian  carrying-place  wrhere  Queen  Weetamoe  was 
drowned  in  attempting  to  get  back  to  her  people,  the  Po- 
cassets,  in  Tiverton. 

The  turnpike  runs  near  Abraham's  Rock  in  Swansea  vil- 
lage, and  from  its  top  you  view  the  two  bays  and  measure 
the  feat  which  Abram,  the  half-breed  Indian  deserter,  was 
forced  to  perform.  Philip  gave  him  Hobson's  choice  be- 
tween death  at  the  stake  and  three  leaps  from  the  summit 


400  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

of  his  rock  where  he  lived  in  its  natural  room,  ''Abram's 
kitchen."  It  is  said  that  after  the  first  two  successful  leaps 
he  became  too  confident  and  struck  the  branch  of  a  tree  and 
perished. 

Swansea's  physicians  have  been  eminent  not  only  in  their 
profession,  but  as  trusted  friends  and  counsellors  of  all  the 
country  roundabout.  Dr.  Ebenezer  Winslow  in  1765  was 
widely  known  in  southern  Massachusetts,  and  his  son,  Dr. 
John  Winslow,  succeeded  him.  Dr.  James  Lloyd  Welling- 
ton, Swansea's  physician  for  some  sixty  years,  is  a  member 
of  the  celebrated  class  of  Harvard,  '38.' 

1  Dr.  Wellington  studied  with  Dr.  O.  W.  Holmes  and  was  present  at 
the  Centennial  Celebration  in  1836  when  Fair  Harvard  was  sung  for  the 
first  time.  The  class  of  1838  included  Aspinwall  Bowditch,  Judge  Charles 
Devens,  Attorney-General  of  the  United  States;  Nathan  Hale,  Patrick 
Tracy  Jackson,  Rufus  King,  James  Russell  Lowell,  William  Wetmore 
Story,  and  George  B.  Loring,  Minister  to  Portugal. 


Derelict  at  South  Swansea. 
The  distant  shore  line  is  the  city  of  Fall  River. 


REHOBOTH  (SECUNKE),  1641-1645 

"Here  comes  old  Shawmut's  pioneer, 
The  parson  on  his  brindled  bull." 

HOLMES. 

THE  pilgrim  parson,  William  Blackstone,  withdrew  with 
dignity  from  land-discussions  and  creed-disputations  with 
the  "  Lords-bretheren  "  of  Boston,  finding  once  more  a  happy 
independence  among  his  books  and  fruit  trees,  as  the  soli- 
tary settler  of  Rhode  Island.  From  "Study  Hall"  on  the 
slope  of  " Study  Hill"  he  watched  the  lovely  Sweecktaconet 
River  peacefully  tumbling  over  the  stones  through  Wane- 
poonseag,  the  Indians'  "place  where  birds  are  ensnared." 
Occasionally  he  preached  at  Providence,  riding  down  Black- 
stone  valley  on  the  bull  which  he  had  tamed  and  tutored  to 
his  use,  and  carrying  delicious  golden  sweetings,  "the  first 
that  were  ever  in  the  world,"  for  the  children  of  Roger 
Williams.  Blackstone  took  no  part  in  Plymouth's  pur- 
chase of  Rehoboth's  "ten  miles  square,"  John  Brown  and 
Edward  Winslow  completing  the  matter.  Massasoit  chose 
out  ten  fathoms  of  beads  and  put  them  in  a  basket,  express- 
ing himself  fully  satisfied  therewith  for  his  land  of  Secunke, 
but  he  stood  upon  it  that  he  would  have  a  coat  more. 

Another  lover  of  toleration,  the  Rev.  Samuel  Newman, 
came  with  his  people  from  "crowded"  Weymouth;  they 
mistook  the  eccentric  Blackstone  for  a  madman  as  he  rode 
in  on  his  bull  to  greet  them,  his  loose  robes  and  long  hair 
flying  in  the  wind.  Newman  revised  here  his  Concordance 
by  the  light  of  pine-knots.  Would  that  King  Philip  had 
not  lighted  the  houses  of  the  " Ring  of  the  Town"  (Seekonk 
Common)  as  indifferently  as  a  pine-knot!  The  sachem 

looked  on  with  grim  satisfaction  from  the  great  armchair. 
26 

401 


402  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 


which  Captain  Abel  had  so  often  proffered  to  him,  Philip 
of  the  Pokanokets,  as  his  guest.  The  chair  is  preserved, 
scorched  by  a  torch  thrown  into  it  by  some  Indian  as  he 
hastened  away  to  pillage  elsewhere. 

The  most  terrible  contest  in  the  Old  Colony,  "  Pierce 's 


The  Kingsley  Lean-to,  South  Rehoboth. 
Residence  of  Harlan  P.  Wyman,  Esq. 

fight,"  '  in  which  no  quarter  was  asked  and  no  quarter  given, 
took  place  in  Rehoboth  at  "  The  Many  Holes."     This  was  a 

1  "Captain  Pierce  cast  his  63  English  and  20  Indians  into  a  ring,  and 
fought  back  to  back,  and  were  double-double  distance  all  in  one  ring, 
whilst  the  -Indians  were  as  thick  as  they  could  stand  thirty  deep,  55  of 
the  English  and  10  Indian  friends  were  slain,"  and  about  150  of  the 
enemy.  Captain  Pierce  fell  early  in  the  fray  and  one  Indian,  Amos, 
stood  by  his  commander  and  fought  till  affairs  became  desperate,  then 
escaped  by  blacking  his  face  with  powder  as  he  saw  the  enemy  had  done 
Another  friendly  Indian  escaped  by  pretending  to  pursue  an  Englishman 
with  uplifted,  threatening  tomahawk. 


Captain  Church  Cages  Philip 


403 


"bed  of  honour"  to  those  who  fell,  yet  Colonel  Church's 
single-handed  deed  of  valor,  in  the  capture  of  Anawan,  the 
intrepid  general  and  counsellor  of  Philip,  made  Rehoboth 
more  famous.  Sixteen  days  previous  Philip  had  been  caged 
at  Mount  Hope  by  Colonel  Church,  Lieutenant  Jabez  How- 


The  Baker  Homestead,  built  in  1698. 
March  mud  on  the  highway. 


land,  Nathaniel  South  worth,  Jacob  Cook  and  other  men  of 
Plymouth,  and  twenty  friendly  Indians.  Church  had 
placed  a  white  man  and  Indian  together  at  intervals,  as  was 
his  custom,  and  Philip,  springing  out  alone  and  unarmed, 
was  killed  by  a  Saconet,  Cook's  gun  missing  fire. 

Now  the  leader  Anawan  alone  remained  to  be  conquered, 
and  he  had  sworn,  like  a  brave  chieftain  of  a  powerful  tribe, 
to  fight  to  the  death.  Captain  Church  compelled  a  captive 
Indian  and  squaw  to  pilot  him  to  Anawan 's  lair  in  Squanna- 
konk  Swamp  of  a  thousand  acres. 


404  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

Hearing  the  pounding  of  a  mortar,  Church  peered  over 
the  precipitous  edge  of  a  huge  rock,1  hemmed  in  by  swamp 
and  forest  except  on  the  north  side,  and  saw  Anawan,  "who 
had  formed  a  camp  or  kenneling  place  by  falling  a  tree 
under  the  side  of  the  great  cliff  and  setting  a  row  of  birch 
bushes  against  it;  he  himself,  his  son,  and  some  chiefs  had 
taken  up  lodgings,  and  had  their  pots  and  kettles  boiling 
and  spits  toasting.  Their  arms  also  he  discovered  standing 
upon  end  against  a  stick  lodged  in  two  crotches,  and  a  mat 
to  keep  them  from  dew.  Captain  Church  ordered  the  old 
man  and  the  squaw  to  go  down  first  with  their  baskets  on 
their  backs,  that  Anawan  should  not  mistrust  an  intrigue, 
and  he,  with  his  handful  of  soldiers,  lowering  themselves  by 
the  boughs  and  bushes  in  the  cracks  of  the  rocks,  crept 
down  in  their  shadow.  The  captain  himself  crept  close  be- 
hind the  old  Anawan  with  his  hatchet  and  stepped  over  his 
son's  head  to  the  arms.'''  Anawan,  starting  up,  cried  "How 
dah"  ("I  am  taken"),  and  surrendered.  "What  have  you 
for  supper?"  said  Captain  Church,  "for  I  have  come  to  sup 
with  you."  "Taubut"  ("thank  you"),  said  Anawan,  bid- 
ding his  women  make  ready.  With  cow-beef  seasoned  from 
a  little  bag  of  salt  pulled  from  his  pocket,  and  dried  corn 
pounded  by  the  old  squaw,  Captain  Church  made  a  hearty 
supper.  This  pounding  proved  lucky  for  Captain  Church's 
getting  down  the  rocks;  for  when  the  old  squaw  pounded 
they  moved,  and  when  she  ceased  they  ceased  creeping.2 

1  Anawan 's  Rock  is  a  few  rods  south  of  the  turnpike  between  Taunton 
and  Providence,  being  eight  miles  from  Taunton  in  the  southeasterly 
part  of  Rehoboth  near  the  Dighton  boundary. 

2  This  is  a  portion  of  Captain  Church's  own  narrative  written  out  by 
another.     A  further  pathetic  scene  took  place  at  the  rock.     During  the 
night  the  moon  now   shining  bright,  Church  saw  Anawan  coming  with 
something  in  his  hands.    "  He  fell  upon  his  knees  and  said:  '  Great  Captain, 
you  have  killed  Philip  and  conquered  his  country,  so  I  suppose  the  war  is 
ended  by  your  means ;  and  therefore  these  things  belong  to  you.'     Open- 
ing his  pack,  he  pulled  out  Philip's  belt  curiously  wrought  with  wampum 
in  various  figures  and  flowers  and  pictures  of  many  birds  and  beasts. 
This,  when  hanged  upon  Captain  Church's  shoulders,  reached  his  ankles, 


Captain  Church  Captures  Anawan        405 

Captain  Church  told  the  captive  Indian  company  that 
their  lives  should  all  be  spared  except  Captain  Anawan's, 
and  it  was  not  in  his  power  to  promise  him  his  life,  but  he 
must  carry  him  to  his  masters  at  Plymouth,  and  he  would 
entreat  there  for  his  life.  As  soon  as  it  was  light,  the  Cap- 


Three-Mile  River,  Westville,  near  Providence  Turnpike,  between  Taunton 

and  Rehoboth. 

tain  marched  with  his  prisoners  out  of  that  swampy  country 
towards  Taunton.  In  spite  of  Church's  intercession,  Ana- 
wan  was  beheaded  at  Plymouth  while  Church  was  absent, 

and  another  belt  of  wampum  Philip  was  wont  to  put  on  his  head."  It 
had  two  flags  which  hung  down  upon  his  back,  another  belt  with  a  star 
he  used  to  hang  on  his  breast;  and  they  were  all  edged  with  red  hair 
which  he  got  in  the  Mohawk's  country.  Then  he  pulled  out  two  glazed 
horns  and  a  red  cloth  blanket,  Philip's  royal  adornments  when  he  sat  in 
state.—  History  of  Rehoboth.  by  Leonard  Bliss,  Jr. 


406  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

as  he  was  unable  to  deny  that  he  had  tortured  English  cap- 
tives, at  which  Church  suffered  much  grief  and  chagrin. 

As  the  largest  town  in  the  Old  Colony,  including  the  At- 
tleboroughs,  Seekonk,  Swansea,  Cumberland,  Pawtucket, 
and  East  Providence,  Rehoboth,  with  her  fine  coast  line, 
became  the  rival  of  Boston  for  the  State  House;  defeated 
by  a  few  votes,  she  has  been  jealous  of  Boston  ever  since ; 
nevertheless  she  claims  precedence  in  the  first  free  public 
school.  The  early  master  went  from  house  to  house  with 
his  books  under  his  arm,  then  boarded  round,  keeping 
school  in  different  divisions  of  the  town  the  same  winter. 

In  1709,  Mr.  John  Lynn  kept  school  in  the  "Ring  of  the 
Green"  and  neighborhood  on  the  east  side  21  weeks;  Pal- 
mer's river,  14  weeks;  Watchemoquet  Neck  [that  part  of 
present  Seekonk  which  lies  below  the  mouth  of  Ten-mile 
river  along  the  Seekonk  or  Pawtucket  river  and  Narragan- 
set  Bay  as  far  down  as  Bullock's  Neck],  13  weeks;  "Cap- 
tain Enoch  Hunt's  neighborhood"  and  "the  mile  and  a 
half,"  9  weeks.  The  churches  marked  the  epochs  and  vil- 
lage divisions.  The  Oak  Swamp  Meeting-house  was  a  land- 
mark for  years,  as  is  the  church  of  the  Middle  Precinct, 
Rehoboth  Village  and  the  Anawan  Meeting-house  in  North 
Rehoboth.  On  Palmer's  river  have  flourished  many  in- 
dustries. Ezra  Perry  made  at  Rehoboth  the  bobbins  for 
Slater's  mill  at  Pawtucket,  the  first  cotton  mill. 

The  distance  from  village  to  town  was  so  great  before  the 
railway  entered  five  years  ago,  and  in  spring  the  mud  of  the 
rude,  rutty  roads  so  heavy,  that  Rehobothites  with  good 
old-fashioned  hospitality  kept  a  "Stranger's  fire."  An  old 
lady,  now  of  Providence,  said  : 

I  was  often  aroused  at  night  by  the  clicking  of  the  latch 
and  whispers  of  weary,  chilled  farmers  with  loads  of  wood. 
M>  hospitable  uncle  would  call  out  'Open  the  fire,'  and, 


408   Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

after  refreshing  themselves  from  the  great  mug  of  cider 
which  stood  by  the  andirons,  the  unseen  visitors  would 
cover  the  fire  and  away  they'd  go,  and  presently  others 
would  appear  and  open  the  fire. 

There  is  still  "room  for  all"  in  Rehoboth's  seventy  miles' 
square;  an  old  settler  said :  " They  have  great  luck  in  clam- 
bakes up  at  Rehoboth ;  there  is  her  Antiquarian  bake  and 
the  Hornbine  bake;  why,  sometimes  they  made  most  a 
thousand  dollars,  and  that  's  the  way  they  kept  the  meetin' 
goin'." 

These  outdoor  summer  festivals  are  still  a  delightful 
function.  The  clams  are  scientifically  steamed  to  a  turn  in 
a  long  trench,  and  eaten  under  the  great  elm  which  once 
shaded  the  old  Goff  homestead,  where  now  stands  Goff 
Memorial  Building.1  It  is  said  that  sometimes  three  thou- 
sand people  have  been  entertained  at  the  Hornbine  Church 
or  Six  Principles  Baptist.  No  wonder  sons  of  dear  old  Re- 
hoboth ride  in  from  heated  cities  and  shore,  even  come  a 
thousand  miles  to  frolic  in  the  fields !  The  unique  charm  of 
the  township  is  a  wide  expanse  of  treeless  fields  commanding 
a  horizon  of  fleecy  clouds  unbroken  except  by  a  pictur- 
esque hamlet  here  and  there,  and  resinous  pine  groves  bor- 
dering Seekonk  Plains.  Toasts  are  spicy,  and  politics 
creep  in,  and  affairs  of  State  and  Nation  are  influenced  on 
these  occasions.  The  ancestral  homestead  of  the  Hon. 
Cornelius  N.  Bliss  is  here,  near  Anawan  Rock.  Benjamin 
West,  mathematician  and  philosopher,  was  born  in  Reho- 
both, also  the  Rev.  Josephus  Wheaton,  and  Thomas  Kinni- 
cut,  the  Worcester  lawyer. 

On  our  way  to  Providence,  from  Rehoboth  village,  after 

1  The  Memorial  Building  contains  the  Blanding  Library,  the  gift  of 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Thomas  W.  Bicknell,  and  the  rooms  of  the  Antiquarian 
Society;  among  the  interesting  relics  are  King  Philip's  kettle  and  the 
Esek  H.  Pierce  collection  from  the  Holy  Land. 


On  the  Road  to  Providence  409 

crossing  the  pretty  Palmer's  River,  Perryville  village 
appears  on  the  right,  and  a  stone  house  on  Rocky  Hill ;  en- 
tering East  Providence  (Wotchemoket)  by  her  babbling  Ten- 
Mile  River  is  Hunt's  Mills,  once  the  favorite  corn-grist  for 
Rehoboth  farmers,  now  frequented  by  artists.  From  the  hill- 
top we  look  for  some  greeting, — perhaps  the  "  What  cheer, 
netopf" — from  Tockwotten  headland,  heard  by  Roger  Wil- 
liams as  at  last  he  joyfully  gazed  on  his  free,  free  hills  of 
Providence. 


MIDDLEBOROUGH  (ASSAWAMPSET) 

"  Round  about  the  Indian  village, 
Spread  the  meadows  and  the  corn-fields, 
And  beyond  them  stood  the  forest." 

THE  SONG  OF  HIAWATHA. 

THE  beautiful  township  of  Middleborough  played  no 
small  part  in  the  history  of  the  Pilgrims,  and,  in  the  present 
renaissance  of  the  study  of  early  events,  it  is  a  pleasure  to 
the  latter-day  pilgrim  to  find  the  old  town  easy  of  access 
either  from  Bridge  water  or  New  Bedford.  This  wonderful 
lake  country  was  traversed  by  the  friendly  Massasoit,  by 
King  Philip  and  his  braves,  and  by  the  hostile  Canonicus,  on 
their  way  to  fish  in  the  Big-Sea-Water. 

To  those  who  love  the  native  legends,  it  is  easy  to  fancy  a 
dusky  warrior  in  his  birch  canoe,  crossing  swiftly  Lake  As- 
sawampset,  his  paddles  "  flashing,  dripping  in  the  sunshine," 
— or  threading  narrower  water-courses,  which  fasten  these 
five  lakes  together  like  beads  on  one  string,— as  he  glides 
toward  the  curling  smoke  of  his  wigwam,  wrhere  his  little 
Hiawatha  seated  at  the  door  hears : 

"Sounds  of  music,  words  of  wonder, 
'  Minne-wawa ! '  said  the  pine  trees, 
'  Mudway-aushka ! '  said  the  water. 

Saw  the  rainbow  and  the  heaven, 
In  the  eastern  sky,  the  rainbow, 
Whispered,  'What  is  that,  Nokomis?'     .     .     . 
'  'T  is  the  heaven  of  flowers  you  see  there; 
All  the  wild-flowers  of  the  forest, 
All  the  lilies  of  the  prairie, 
When  on  earth  they  fade  and  perish, 
Blossom  in  that  heaven  above  us.' " 
410 


si 


*>;> 


•g 
a 


412  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

These  lovely  waters,  Assawampset,  Long  Pond,  Great  and 
Little  Quittacus  Pond,  were  the  haunts  of  the  Namaskets, 

one  of  the  tribes  of  Massasoit, 
strangely  spared  by  the  pestilence 
which  swept  by  on  each  side  of 
them.  They  were  warrantably 
prejudiced  against  all  white  men, 
because  Captain  Thomas  Hunt 
played  them  false  in  1614  by  kid- 
napping twenty  of  their  number 
into  slavery;  and  when  Captain 
Dermer  visited  them — before  the 
coming  of  the  Mayflower — they 
would  have  destroyed  him  had 
not  Tisquantum  pleaded  for  his  life. 
Captain  Dermer  says:  "I  dis- 
patched a  messenger  a  day's  jour- 
ney to  Pokanoket,  whence  came  to 
see  me  two  kings  (Massasoit  and 
Quadequina)  with  a  guard  of  fifty 
armed  men."  Captain  Dermer's 
visit  paved  the  way  for  a  more 
friendly  reception  of  the  Pilgrims 


MIDDLEBOROUGH 

LANDMARKS:  First  Church,  organ- 
ized 1694.  Indian  Rock.  Barrows 
Tavern,  a  "  Garrison,"  North  Main 
St.  Major  Elisha  Tucker-Prof. 
W.  P.  Jenks  house,  residence  of  E. 
Tucker  Jenks.  Peter  H.  Pierce 
house.  Pierce  Academy.  Soldiers' 
Monument.  Major  Levi  Pierce- 
Allen  Thatcher  house.  Philander 
Washburn  house,  residence  of  Levi 
P.  Thatcher.  Abiel  Wood  house 
(1771).  Sproat  Tavern,  Benjamin 
Franklin  visited.  Judge  Oliver 
house.  Thomas  Long  house,  birth- 
place Zadoc  Long,  father  of  ex- 
Secretary  of  the  Navy,  Hon.  John 
D.  Long.  Mad  Mare's  Neck,  be- 
tween marshy  stream,  Black  Branch, 
and  Great  Quittacus  Lake,  Lake- 
ville. 


NORTH  MIDDLEBOROUGH 

(TITICUT) 

King  Philip's  Camp.  Second  Con- 
gregational Church  of  Middleborough 
and  Parsonage.  Pratt  Free  School. 
Albert  Pratt  house  on  site  of  Pratt 
home  lot  (1732).  Otis  Pratt  house. 
Zebulon  K.  Pratt  house,  residence 
of  Jefferson  Pratt.  David  Gurney 
house.  Elder  Backus  house  (1750), 
residence  of  Isaac  E.  Perkins.  WinsloW  and  Hopkins,  aS  they 

passed  through  Middleborough  on  their  embassy  to  Massa- 
soit.  The  Namaskets  made  signs  of  pleasure,  spreading 
before  them  a  feast  of  corn-bread  and  boiled  shad-roe.  Wins- 
low  astounded  the  natives  by  shooting  at  eighty  yards  one 
of  the  troublesome  crows  destroying  their  corn.  They  slept 
in  the  open  air  in  Titicut  village  (North  Middleborough)  at 
another  Indian  camp,  after  a  supper  of  bass,  and  next  day, 
crossing  the  famous  ford  of  the  Taunton,  they  presently 
entered  the  territory  of  the  Wampanoags,  the  chief  section 
of  Massasoit's  dependency,  bearing  the  gift  of  a  trooper's 


Great  and  Good  Massasoit 


413 


coat  of  red  cotton  trimmed  with  lace,  arid  a  copper  chain 
and  medal  for  the  great  chief,  in  which  he  arrayed  himself, 
much  to  his  own  pride  and  that  of  his  admiring  people.1 


The  Nelson-Washburn  House,  Lakeville,  summer  Residence  of  F.  C.  Hinds, 

Esq. 

On  the  road  from  Titicut  to  Middleborough  are  a  series  of 
pretty  country  scenes :  we  are  close  to  the  site  of  the  house 

1  The  Wampanoags  occupied  the  present  Warren,  Bristol,  and  Bar- 
rington,  R.  I.,  and  parts  of  Seekonk,  and  Swansea,  Mass.  The  Namaskets 
occupied  Middleborough,  so-called  because  half-way  between  Plymouth 
and  Mount  Hope,  home  of  Massasoit.  "Wamassakett  shall  be  a  town- 
ship and  to  be  called  by  the  name  of  Middleberry." — Plymouth  County 
Records. 


4H  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

of  Chief  Corbitant;  though  not  deliberately  ferocious,  like 
Canonicus,  the  Narraganset, — who  sent  a  war  challenge  to 
Plymouth  in  the  shape  of  a  sheaf  of  arrows  tied  with  a 
snake-skin,  and  was  silenced  by  Governor  Bradford's  send- 
ing back  the  skin  filled  with  powder  and  ball, — Corbitant 
was  determined  to  see  what  stuff  these  newcomers  were 
made  of;  he  took  captive  Tisquantum  and  Hobomok,  and 
threatened  to  destroy  "the  tongue  of  the  Pilgrims,"  as  he 
called  Tisquantum.  Hobomok  escaped,  and  flew  back  to 
Plymouth  with  the  news  that  Corbitant  was  holding  a  knife 
at  Tisquantum's  heart.  Standish  hastened  to  the  rescue, 
and  with  his  standing  army  of  ten  surrounded  Corbitant 's 
house;  the  cunning  chief  had  fled,  leaving  Tisquantum 
uninjured.  Corbitant  widely  proclaimed  the  prowess  of 
the  Pilgrims,  and  nine  sachems  signed  allegiance  to  King 
James. 

For  many  moons  thereafter  the  peace-pipe  was  smoked. 
Suddenly  the  bloody  hatchet  was  dug  up  at  Middleborough, 
when  John  Sassamon,  the  Indian  preacher,  who  had  warned 
Governor  Winslow  that  mischief  was  brewing  against  the 
colonies,  was  murdered  by  three  Indians  in  Lake  Assa- 
wampset  (Lakeville) .  The  crime  was  witnessed  by  Patuck- 
son  from  an  odd  round  hill  at  the  right  of  the  main  road, 
known  as  "  King  Philip's  Mound."  At  the  bridge  crossing 
the  brook  is  Deep  Hole,  where  Captain  Church  had  a  skir- 
mish with  Tespaquin. 

Near  the  pleasant  old  Washburn  house,  once  "the  finest 
house  in  the  country,"  at  the  "  triangle  "  in  Lakeville  when  it 
was  the  southwesterly  part  of  Middleborough,  stood  the  Bap- 
tist church  where  Elder  Ebenezer  Hinds  preached,  a  contem- 
porary of  Elder  Backus  of  Titicut,  the  much-beloved  circuit 
preacher,  who  rode  many  long  miles  in  all  weathers  to  his 
widely  scattered  parishes.  The  Rev.  Samuel  Fuller  was 
pastor  of  the  First  Church.  One  of  the  town's  famous 


Lakeville  415 

Revolutionary  soldiers,  Colonel  Ebenezer  Sproat,  was  nick- 
named "Big  Buckeye"  by  the  Indians. 

Middleborough's  great  old-fashioned  Pierce  store  has  for 
years  been  the  goal  of  the  farmers.  On  market-day  the 
street  is  filled  with  chaises  and  wagons  waiting  to  purchase 
everything  from  a  cinnamon  stick  to  a  ploughshare. 


Copyright  by  H.  Troth. 

The  Wild  Carrot,  or  Queen  Anne's  Lace  Handkerchief. 
Cape  Cod's  graceful,  luxuriant,  August  habitant. 


CAPE  COD 

-  A  FEW  miles  from  Middleborough  the  scythe  of  Massachu- 
setts cuts  the  sea  at  northeast  by  east.  This  odd,  hooked 
peninsula,  the  Nauset  of  the  Indians,  has  been  also  likened 
by  ancient  voyagers  to  a  horn  and  to  a  sickle.  Sieur  de 
Champlain  called  it  Cap  Blanc  (Cape  White),  "because 
there  were  sands  and  downs  which  appeared  thus";  but 
Captain  Bartholemew  Gosnold,  seeing  how  generously  the 
safe  bay  supplied  his  table  and  the  crew's  mess,  called  it 
Cape  Cod.  Captain  Gosnold  went  ashore  and  found  peas, 
strawberries,  and  whortleberries,  and  took  for  firewood 
cypress,  birch,  and  witch-hazel,  and  a  young  Indian  came 
to  meet  him  armed  with  bow  and  arrows,  and  certain  plates 
of  copper  hanging  in  his  ears.  Doubtless  the  captain  en- 
countered wayward  currents  and  shoals;  in  1602  a  point  of 
heavy  breakers  was  named  by  him  "Tucker's  Terror,"  be- 
cause one  of  his  men  took  fright  at  them. 

The  Scandinavian  voyagers  called  these  long,  narrow 
beaches  and  trackless  sandhills,  affording  a  singular  mirage 
like  the  Arabian  desert,  Furdustrand-ir  Wonder  Strands. 
One  strong  proof  of  the  Buzzard's  Bay  region  being  the 
Vineland  of  the  Northmen  is  that  the  island  of  Naushon, 
retaining  its  natural  state  of  luxurious  verdure,  has  in  its 
venerable  forest  depths  one  particularly  superb  grapevine, 
spreading  like  a  net  from  tall  tree  to  tall  tree,  forming  a  wide 
leaf  canopy,  like  the  fretted  arches  of  some  great  cathedral. 
Among  the  traditions  of  this  legendary  island,  where 
Holmes  has  made  merry,  William  Morris  Hunt  painted, 
and  Emerson  dreamed, — once  owned  by  Governor  James 
Bowdoin,  whose  homestead  is  said  to  be  haunted,  and  some 
years  ago  purchased  by  William  W.  Swain  of  New  Bedford, 

416 


Buzzard's  Bay  the  Norseman's  Vineland  ?   41? 

and  John  M.  Forbes  of  Milton, — one  concerns  the  landing  of 
the  British.  A  Hessian  officer  writes  that  they  were  met  by  a 
man  and  a  little  girl,  "the  man  bearing  a  flag  of  truce  and 
the  little  girl  an  egg  in  token  of  confidence.  When  the  egg 
was  accepted  she  held  out  her  right  hand  with  a  kiss."  I 

It  is  not  impossible  that  Straumf  jord,  the  birthplace  of 
Snorre,  ancestor  of  Thorwaldsen,  and  the  first  white  child 
born  in  America,  was  situated  on  Buzzard's  Bay.  The  dis- 


"  /  heard,  or  seemed  to  hear,  the  chiding  Sea 
Say:  'Pilgrim,  why  so  late  and  slow  to  come  ? 
Am  I  not  always  here,  thy  summer  home  ?'  ' 

"Sea-shore."     EMERSON. 

tinguished  Norsemen  arrived  in  three  ships,  containing  all 
sorts  of  live  stock, — "  probably  the  first  Norway  rats  among 
the  rest,"  says  Thoreau;  also,  observing  at  Provincetown 
how  the  lobsters  catch  themselves  in  the  netting  of  their 
own  accord,  he  remarks,  "Man  needs  to  know  but  little 
more  than  a  lobster  in  order  to  catch  him  in  his  traps." 
The  jail  was  "to  let"  when  Thoreau  was  there,  as  often  the 
court,  meeting  at  Barn  stable,  had  not  a  single  criminal  to 

1  An  Island  in  New  England,  by  Gustav  Kobbe\  Century,  1898. 
27 


4i 8  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

try.  A  downright  people  are  these  descendants  of  the 
Pilgrims,  and  their  traits  of  mother-wit  and  independence 
have  been  accentuated  in  a  sea-girt  land.  Citified  folk,  cut 
all  of  a  piece  (outwardly  at  least),  like  a  string  of  paper 
dolls,  are  often  amused  at  country  idiosyncrasies.  On 
sober  consideration,  however,  the  preference  of  a  Cape  Cod 
deacon  for  wearing  wigs  of  a  different  color, — a  red  one  for 
week  days  and  a  black  one  on  Sunday, — is  even  less  pro- 
nounced than  some  of  the  strange  pranks  of  apparel  and 
amusement  of  more  conventional  territory  at  the  same 
period. 

It  was  in  Buzzard's  Bay  that  Dr.  Francis  Le  Baron  was 
cast  ashore  in  the  wreck  of  a  French  privateer.  This  ac- 
complished surgeon,  who  hid  his  noble  name  on  account  of 
royal  displeasure,  on  passing  through  Plymouth  as  a  pris- 
oner-of-war, was  called  upon  to  cure  Goodman  Hunter's 
wife,  and  later  settled  there,  marrying  Mary  Wilder  of 
Hingham  after  a  romantic  courtship  as  The  Nameless 
Nobleman. 

At  the  head  of  Buzzard's  Bay  is  Manomet,  and  a  pali- 
saded trading-house  of  the  Pilgrims  stood  on  Manomet  (now 
Monumet)  River.  They  brought  hither  their  corn,  swine, 
and  poultry  by  way  of  Scusset  River,  then  sent  the  proven- 
der to  Manhattan  and  up  the  Connecticut.  When  Boston 
was  besieged,  patriot  coasters  from  New  York,  laden  with 
flour,  unloaded  at  the  old  Pilgrim  landing,  and  were  met  at 
Scusset  by  a  detachment  from  Colonel  Cotton's  Plymouth 
Regiment,  under  Captain  Samuel  Bradford.  Among  his 
brother  officers  were  an  Alden,  a  Cole,  a  Church,  and  Wads- 
worth;  "alas,  there  was  no  Winslow,  for  that  family  was 
stiffly  Tory!"  (Goodwin).  In  several  whale-boats,  com- 
manded by  Captain  Sylvanus  Drew,  they  crept  warily  up 
the  shore  to  Cohasset,  sending  the  flour  thence  overland  to 
the  troops.  On  this  same  Pilgrim  route,  in  1717, — the  line 


The  Elizabeth  Islands 

of  the  Cape  Cod  ship-canal  route, — was  projected  the  build- 
ing of  a  fence  six  feet  high  from  bay  to  bay  to  keep  the 
wolves  off  the  Cape.  The  mainland  folk  objected  to  helping 
pay  for  keeping  the  wolves  on  their  side,  and  the  project 
was  abandoned.  Tradition  says  that  a  Pilgrim  wrote  on  the 
face  of  a  rock  in  Manomet : 

"The  Eastern  nations  sink,  their  glory  ends, 
And  Empire  rises  where  the  sun  descends." 

On  Cuttyhunk  Isle,  off  Dartmouth  shore,  Gosnold  built 
his  warehouse  on  a  rocky  islet  in  the  fresh-water  pond, 
separated  from  the  salt  bay  only  by  a  narrow  beach.  Eliza- 
beth, Gosnold  named  his  woodland  island ;  and  wherever  you 
may  alight  on  the  charming  shores  of  Buzzard's  Bay, — at 
Nonquitt,  Fal mouth,  Mattapoiset,  or  New  Bedford, — you 
are  not  eligible  to  maritime  inner  circles  until  you  can  re- 
peat the  rhyme  of  the  Elizabeth  Islands: 

Nashawena,  Pesquinese,  Naushon,  Nonameset, 

Cuttyhunk,  Penekees,  Onkatonka,  Wepecket 


NEW  BEDFORD  (ACUSHNET),  1652-1787 

"  The  rise  of  the  people  called  Quakers  is  one  of  the  memorable  events  in 
the  history  of  man.  It  marks  the  moment  when  intellectual  freedom  was 
claimed  unconditionally  by  the  people  as  an  inalienable  birthright." — 
BANCROFT. 

"New  Bedford  was  long  the  chief  whaling  port  in  the  world." — MARVIN. 

VERY  soon  after  the  Pilgrims  bought  the  land,  which  they 
named  Dartmouth,  for  the  port  where  the  Mayflower  and 
Speedwell  put  back  for  repairs;  also,  soon  after,  Ralph 
Russell — a  companion  voyager  of  the  Taunton  Leonards 
from  Pontipool — set  up  his  "bloomerie"  on  the  Pascaman- 
set  River,  a  colony  of  Friends  quietly  settled  in  this  corner 
of  Massachusetts,  close  to  liberal  Rhode  Island,  apparently 
ignoring  the  gallows  of  New  England. 

At  that  moment  their  leader,  George  Fox,  the  shepherd 
lad  apprenticed  to  a  shoemaker  with  the  blood  of  martyrs 
in  his  veins,  was  causing  England  "to  rage  like  the  sea"  by 
uttering  his  simple  convictions  in  village  market-places  and 
in  the  streets  of  London.  Following  an  irrepressible  man- 
date from  within,  he  left  his  flock  on  the  Nottingham  hills  to 
publish  fearlessly  in  "a  briery  and  brambly  world"  the 
luminous  beauty  of  his  guide — The  Inner  Light.  The  peo- 
ple, crowding  thick  about  him  like  doves  in  the  Piazza  San 
Marco,  veiled  not  their  ardor  for  his  philosophy  before  the 
monarch,  the  nobles,  or  Cromwell;  the  haughty  hypocrite 
dared  not  dispute  with  the  humble  countryman,  and  trem- 
bled on  hearing  that  "the  man  with  the  leather  breeches 
has  come." 

The  Friends'  large  meeting-house,  built  in  1699  on  Peleg 
Slocum's  land-gift,  in  a  lovely  region  some  two  miles  from 
Russell's  Mills,  has  been  replaced  by  the  Apponaganset 
meeting-house,  where,  as  of  old,  the  women  enter  by  their 

420 


The  Dartmouth  Friends 


421 


door  and  the  men  by  theirs  every  First  Day.     The  Friends 
are  distinguished  everywhere  for  gracious  beauty  of  char- 
acter, but  their  distinctive  customs  NEW  BEDFORD 
of  dress  and  quaint  and  charming  LANDMARKS:  Rodman  homestead 

1  i  -,-r-     11  u     !  (1828),     Spring    and     County     Sts. 

phraseology  are  modified  by  world-  j  Grace  Church.  Parish.house  dedi. 
Iv   concessions.      The  broadbrims  cated  bv  P^PS  Brooks  (1892). 

I  Roach-Arnold  house.     Jones  house, 

have  almost  disappeared,  and  also  J  Madison  and  court  sts.     Bartiett 
the  dove-like  gowns  and  exquisitely 


Isaac  Rowland  house  (1773). 


sheer,  snowy  kerchiefs,  exemplify- 

.  ,     .     ,  ,  •  /-    1  i      nett    house,    built    by    John    Avery 

ing  that    truth  is  beautiful  enough  Parker>   County  and   Willis   Sts. 
in    plain    clothes."  I     Mr.    George 
Fox  Tucker,  in  describing  the  bon- 
net of  A  Quaker  Home,  says: 


"Grandmother's bonnet  was  of 
the  old  pattern,  long  and  of  a 
melancholy  drab;  mother's  was 
shorter  and  of  a  more  attractive 
shade:  grandmother's  had  small 
drab  ribbons  which  she  tied  un- 
der the  chin  without  regard  to 
appearance:  mother's  had  large 
ones  gathered  in  a  graceful  knot, 
and  the  crown  had  smaller  plaits 
arranged  with  a  view  to  symme- 
try and  grace." 

In  New  Bedford  the  drab-colored 
meeting-house  has  been  replaced 
by  the  brick  one  on  Spring  Street. 


Fearing-Grinnell  house.  Russell 
house,  Russell  St.  Cornelius  Grin- 
nell-Hathaway  house.  Joseph  Grin- 
nell  house,  property  of  Frederick 
Grinnell.  Anthony  Delano  house, 
Hawthorne  St.,  near  Orchard. 
Charles  Russell  house  (1830)  now 
St.  Joseph's  Hospital.  Site  Joseph 
Tucker  homestead  (1740),  Tucker 
Road,  Dartmouth.  Point  Drive. 

FAIRHAVEN 

LANDMARKS:  Millicent  Library. 
Town  Hall  and  Unitarian  Church; 
Parish-house  of  Tudor  period,  built 
of  native  granite  turrets  and  pin- 
nacles of  time  of  Henry  VII.  and 
Elizabeth;  gargoyles  after  those  of 
Ely  Cathedral;  Memorial  gifts  of 
Henry  H.  Rogers.  Gun  captured 
from  British  at  Nassau,  1777,  placed 
at  Fort  Phoenix;  Recapture  by 
British,  1778.  Marine  Park 

Supplementary:  Ricketson's  New 
Bedford.  Ellis's  New  Bedford.  Remit 
niscences  of  a  Journalist,  by  C.  J.  Cong- 
don.  Daniel  Ricketson  and  His  Friends, 
by  Anna  and  Walton  Ricketson. 
The  American  Merchant  Marine,  by  Win- 
throp  L.  Marvin.  The  Gam  (whaling 
stories),  by  Captain  Robbins  of  New 
Bedford.  The  Quaker,  A  Study  in  Cos* 
tume,  by  Amelia  Mott  Gummere. 


1  The  Dartmouth  meeting  gave  forth 
with  sorrow  a  Public  Condemnation  in 
1733  against  one  of  its  members  because  he  "let  himself  into  Liberty 
by  wearing  Divers  sorts  of  Periwigs  and  his  Hat  set  upon  three  sides  like 
Ye  Vain  Custom  of  Ye  World."  One  of  the  Quaker  hats  of  beaver,  after 
the  court  style  of  James  II.  first  adopted,  may  be  seen  in  the  Museum 


422  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

Charles  Congdon,  the  journalist,  a  New  Bedford  boy, 
who  was  on  the  staff  of  the  New  York  Tribune  with  Horace 
Greeley,  esteemed  it  a  privilege  to  have  known  something 
of  Quakerism  when  it  yet  retained  much  of  its  primitive 
quaintness  and  simplicity,  though  even  fifty  years  ago  the 
monthly  meeting,  as  a  committee  reported,  "  was  rather  on 
the  dwindle." 

"Everybody  knows  what  was  the  hospitality  of  the 
Friends,  and  anybody  who  has  eaten  an  old-fashioned 
quarterly  meeting  dinner,  my  word  for  it,  has  a  pleasant 
memory  thereof,"  says  Mr.  Congdon.  "We  had  a  rich  old 
Quaker  merchant  in  our  town,  liberal  as  the  air  and  un- 
speakably hospitable,  but  sometimes  unspeakably  tried  by 
bores.  There  was  a  shrewd  Friend  who  again  and  again 
went  to  the  house  about  dinner-time  to  fish  for  an  invita- 
tion. He  had  no  notion  of  buying  oil,  but,  with  an  air  of 
business,  he  would  ask,  '  Friend  R.,  could  thee  tell  me  what 
I  could  buy  sperm-oil  for  now,  by  the  ten  gallons  or  twenty 
gallons  ? '  Patience  being  exhausted  he  got  his  answer : 
'John,  see  to  it  that  thee  never  comes  to  my  house  again  to 
inquire  the  price  of  sperm-oil, — about  dinner-time!'  and  I 
suppose  that  John  did  n't."  ' 

Whaling  profits  poured  into  New  Bedford  later  than  else- 
where. A  sage  and  plucky  salt  caught  the  idea  of  earning 

at  Nantucket.  It  belonged  to  Reuben  Macy,  probably  a  son  of  Goodman 
Macy,  driven  out  of  Amesbury  for  harboring  Quakers,  and  a  first  settler 
at  Nantucket. 

1  Mr.  Congdon,  seeing  always  the  humorous  side,  says:  "  My  great-grand- 
father must  have  been  a  Friend  of  extremely  solid  convictions;  for  having 
once  borrowed  an  overcoat  of  a  worldly  acquaintance  in  which  to  attend 
some  yearly  meeting,  he  did  not  feel  free  to  wear  it  with  buttons  on  the 
back,  which  were  merely  ornamental.  He,  therefore,  being  moved  by 
the  spirit  to  do  so,  cut  them  off,  and  so  went  with  his  mind  at  ease  to  the 
gathering.  Afterwards  he  found  himself  in  a  curious  dilemma.  He  could 
not  conscientiously  put  the  buttons  on  again,  and  he  hardly  liked  to 
return  the  garment  without  them.  How  he  settled  the  matter  I  do  not 
know;  probably  he  referred  it  to  the  'meeting.1  " 


424  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

butter  for  his  bread  while  watching  from  a  Nantucket  sand- 
bank some  Indians  attacking  a  whale  from  a  frail  canoe,1— 
whales  came  close  inshore  then,  not  recognizing  man  as  an 
enemy.  Such  audacious,  tenacious  whalemen  hailed  from 
Mattapoiset,  Falmouth,  and  the  divisions  of  old  Dartmouth 
that  the  British  cruiser,  capturing  an  American  whale-boat, 
gave  the  crew  their  choice  of  fighting  or  whaling  for  them, 
and  soon  had  vessels  in  the  Arctic  fisheries.  Joseph  Russell 
was  born  in  the  "Old  Garrison"  at  Russell's  Orchard;  near 
by  was  the  house  of  the  Ricketsons,  original  proprietors  of 
Dartmouth.  Mr.  Russell's  farm  covered  a  large  part  of  the 
present  city.  He  was  New  Bedford's  first  whale  merchant ; 
and  a  son  of  his  friend,  Joseph  Rotch,  launched  her  first 
ship — the  Dartmouth,  a  prominent  figure  of  the  Tea-Party 
drama  at  Griffin's  Wharf,  Boston,  Mr.  Rotch  being  ordered 
"not  to  enter  the  tea  at  his  peril."  Whaling  voyages  grew 
more  perilous,  the  risk  heavy,  as  whales  became  few  and  far 
between;  and,  whereas  Captain  Bunker,  in  the  Uncas  of 
Falmouth,  took  an  $88,000  catch,  and  Captain  Seabury  bar- 
relled $12,000  worth  of  oil  in  one  venture,  by  1853  the 
Rush  disappointed  her  owners  by  returning  only  ninety 
barrels  after  circumnavigating  the  globe.  As  the  captains 
were  supposed  to  return  with  a  full  hold  or  not  at  all,  his 
empty  casks  must  have  placed  him  in  a  sorry  plight.  An 
occasional  break  in  the  monotony  of  a  three-years  voyage 
was  the  pleasant  ceremony  of  "the  gam,"  etiquette  demand- 
ing that  when  vessels  meet  on  the  whaling-ground  officers 
shall  exchange  visits,  and  also  the  crews. 

The  streets  of  New  Bedford  have  not  entirely  lost  the 

1  The  bark  canoe  is  the  model  for  our  paragon  Yankee  whale-boat: 
"Sharp,  clean-cut  as  a  dolphin,  the  rise  of  bow  and  stern  and  clipper-like 
upper  form,  give  it  a  duck-like  capacity  to  top  incoming  waves;  so  that 
it  will  dryly  ride  where  ordinary  boats  would  fill ;  a  boat  which  two  men 
may  lift,  and  which  will  make  ten  miles  an  hour,"  says  Captain  Davis,  of 
Nantucket  in  his  Nimrod  of  the  Sea. 


Whaling- Days 


425 


flavor  of  oil  and  candles,  in  pursuit  of  which  all  nations  filled 
her  wharves.  Ship  news  was  then  valued  above  any  other ; 
a  touch  of  the  maritime  and  of  Quaker  simplicity  still  dig- 


The  Whaler's  stanch  Captain  on  Shore. 

nifies  the  homesteads.  On  the  Old  Country  Road  from  the 
Cove  to  the  Head  of  the  River  (Acushnet),  before  the  Revo- 
lution, were  the  walled-in  farms  of  the  Aliens,  Kemptons, 


426  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

Willises,  Peckhams,  and  Wrightingtons.  A  delightful  and 
unique  affair  is  the  wagon-stage,  few  of  which  are  seen  in 
New  England  nowadays;  you  may  jog  from  New  Bedford 
to  Little  Compton,  picking  up  the  mail  as  you  go  with  ease 
and  nonchalance  in  this  bewitching  region,  stopping  for  a 
glass  of  milk  at  some  Westport  farm,  or  to  gather  trailing 
arbutus  or  berries.  Alongshore,  from  Padanaram,  west 
are  prosperous  fishing  villages  and  rock-sheltered  beaches 
ideal  for  bathing.  Inland  stretches  of  wet  sand  are  found, 
and,  turning  a  polished  stone,  a  crab  scrabbles  from  his 
home  into  a  pool;  if  the  sportsman  does  not  enjoy  "crab- 
bing," he  finds  game-birds  in  variety. 

Acushnet  village,  on  the  old  post-route  from  Boston,  is 
very  attractive;  here  the  eccentric  Dr.  West  preached  on 
his  hill-top  and  dared  write  a  learned  reply  to  Edwards'  On 
the  Will.  He  did  the  patriots  service  by  deciphering  the 
treasonable  letters  of  Dr.  Church ;  withal,  he  was  so  absent- 
minded  that,  "having  dismounted  to  rest  his  old  horse,  the 
animal  slipped  the  bridle,  and.  the  Doctor  walked  home 
with  it  on  his  shoulder,  never  suspecting  that  the  creature 
was  not  behind."  The  British,  under  General  Grey,  who 
had  sailed  against  New  Bedford  and  Fairhaven  in  the  "  New 
Lunnun  fleet,"  burned  a  part  of  Acushnet  as  they  marched 
around  the  river.  Many  householders  fled  to  the  woods, 
and  one  woman  rushed  away  with  the  first  thing  she  laid 
hands  on — a  brass  warming-pan,  which  made  such  a  clashing 
against  overhanging  boughs  that  every  one  fled  as  fast  from 
her  as  from  the  regulars.  Fairhaven  would  have  been  de- 
stroyed had  not  Major  Fearing  and  his  militia  come  to  the 
rescue.  The  British  departed  for  Martha's  Vineyard,  de- 
stroying the  whale-boats  in  her  Old  Town  Harbor. 

It  would  seem  that  our  modern  painters  love  the  stones  of 
Fairhaven  much  as  Old  World  artists  idolize  their  Venice. 
Bierstadt,  R.  Swain  Gifford,  William  A.  Wall,  Van  Beest, 


428  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

Bradford  (a  Quaker  descendant  of  William  Bradford),  L.  D. 
Eldred,  Clement  Swift,  Isaac  Walton  Taber  are  all  asso- 
ciated with  New  Bedford  and  Fairhaven.  Walton  Ricket- 
son,  the  sculptor,  has  in.  his  possession  the  flute  of  Thoreau, 
who  visited  often  Friend  Daniel  Ricketson,  and,  with 
Ellery  Channing  and  George  William  Curtis,  caused  his 
"shanty"  at  Brooklawn  here  to  scintillate  with  philosophy, 
poetry,  and  wit. 

TIVERTON. 

West  of  New  Bedford  and  south  of  Fall  River,  on  the 
Seaconnet  River,  is  unique  and  picturesque  Tiverton,  home 
of  Weetamoe,  Queen  of  Pocasset,  "  a  severe  and  proud  dame, 
bestowing  every  day  in  dressing  herself  near  as  much  time 
as  any  gentry  of  the  land — powdering  her  hair  and  painting 
her  face,"  says  their  captive,  Mrs.  Rowland  son  of  Lancas- 
ter; also  the  scene  of  the  battle  of  Fogland  or  "  Peas  Fight " 
(fought  in  a  field  of  peas).  After  the  burning  of  Swansea, 
the  Pokanokets  were  chased  by  the  English  and  crossed  to 
Pocasset  (modern  Tiverton;  early  Pocasset  lay  on  both 
sides  of  the  Seaconnet),  where  Colonel  Church1  came  sud- 
denly upon  a  force  of  twenty  times  his  number,  who  pinned 
them  upon  the  shore  at  Namaquacket  (near  the  house  of 
Senator  Church,  familiarly  known  as  Captain  "Nat"). 
Their  plight  was  discovered  by  Captain  Golding,  and  his 
sloop  ran  down  to  their  assistance.  On  account  of  his  ex- 
ploit, the  pretty  little  island  of  Island  Park,  south  of  the 
Stone  Bridge,  on  which  are  some  Revolutionary  earthworks, 
was  named  Golding's  (now  Gould's)  Island.  For  the  past 

1  Colonel  Benjamin  Church  was  the  first  settler  in  Little  Compton,  and 
his  descendants  still  hold  his  estate.  He  served  in  no  less  than  five 
expeditions  against  Canada  and  Maine  as  commander-in-chief  of  the 
colonial  forces,  and  Governor  Winslow,  when  sending  the  King  a  present 
of  the  spoils  of  Philip  (see  the  Rehoboth  chapter) ,  mentioned  Church  as 
"a  person  of  great  loyalty  and  the  most  successful  of  our  commanders." 


Tiverton  429 

half -century  Tiverton  has  been  the  centre  of  the  menhaden 
fisheries,  founded  by  seven  Church  brothers,  who  went 
"  fishing  for  fish  "  from  Canada  to  Cape  Hatteras  with  purse- 
nets  and  inherited  pluck.  ' '  'T  wa'n't  no  excursion, ' '  said  the 
hearty  first -mate,  in  describing  one  adventure.  Menhaden — 
profitable  for  oil  and  fish  guano — are  called  poggies  in  Maine, 
mossbunkers  in  Connecticut,  and  fatbacks  in  Virginia. 
Captain  Daniel  Church,  whose  house  was  the  headquarters 
of  General  Greene,  is  an  authority  on  the  fisheries  of  the 
Western  Hemisphere.  Many  seek  Tiverton  in  summer, 
which  is  loveliest  as  the  day  wanes, — the  sky,  a  glory  of  pink 
or  intense  orange,  throws  into  relief  harbored  skiffs  and  the 
dark,  odd-shaped  Hummock,  whose  tiny  pointed  firs  are 
characteristic  of  the  smaller  islands  of  "Little  Rhody." 

Among  the  twenty-seven  men  who  were  declared  freemen 
of  the  town  when  Tiverton  was  incorporated  in  1692,  were 
Major  Church,  Richard  Borden,  Job  Peace,  Daniel  How- 
land,  Joseph  Anthony,  and  Edward  Briggs. 


AQUIDNECK,  THE  ISLE  OF  PEACE 

IT  is  idle  to  attempt  to  paint  the  surrounding  charms  as 
you  pass  in  balmy  air  and  sunlight  through  Tiverton  Village, 
down  and  across  the  Stone  Bridge  (of  old,  Rowland's  Ferry), 
up  and  over  the  ridge  of  this  grassy  island,  paralleled  by  the 
dancing  waters  of  Mount  Hope  Bay  on  the  one  hand,  and 
on  the  other  by  the  blue  Seaconnet  (Sakonnet) ,  linking  the 
bay  to  the  sea.  Here  in  Portsmouth,  William  Coddingtcn 
the  Quaker,  and  John  Clarke,  John  Coggeshall,  and  William 
Aspinwall,  the  disciples  of  Individualism,  made  a  settle- 
ment at  Common  Fence  Point  on  this  island,  purchased 
from  Canonicus  and  Miantonomo;  Coddington  shortly 
moved  on  to  Newport.  Portsmouth  held  forth  her  plea  for 
the  seat  of  the  General  Assembly,  as  well  as  Providence, 
Newport,  and  Warwick,  ending  in  a  compromise  of  holding 
it  successively  at  each  town. 

On  arriving  at  Newtown  Village,  wre  feel  certain  that 
Mistress  Anne  Hutchinson  was  a  woman  of  taste  to  have 
chosen  this  as  her  portion  of  the  Isle  of  Peace — the  refuge  of 
independent  thinkers.  The  pretty  hamlet  beguiles  us  into 
almost  believing  that  we  are,  like  Penelope,  enjoying  Eng- 
lish Experiences,  and  may  engage  a  room  at  some  Mrs. 
Bobby's  cottage.  Here  is  one  smothered  in  vines,  behind 
the  wTicket-gate  a  trim,  sweet-scented  dooryard,  blooming 
with  roses,  clove-pinks,  sweet-williams.  Travelling  on,  it  is 
a  soft,  soft  green, — everywhere  the  hum  of  bees,  huge  clover- 
blossoms,  fragrant  new-mown  hay,  grazing  sheep, — for 
Aquidneck  Isle  is  a  veritable  Eden.  If  the  Seaconnet  below 
were  but  a  soft -flowing  Avon,  instead  of  the  broad  lake-like 
stream  it  is,  surging  white-capped  against  Ferry  Neck,  and 
terraced  Tiverton  Heights  less  high,  the  illusion  of  an  Eng- 

430 


432  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

lish  country  scene  would  be  complete.  Stay,  on  the  hill- 
top, that  mill  swinging  its  arms  with  folded  sails  smacks  of 
Holland, — but  no,  Quaker  Hill  is  not  of  the  lowlands  of  the 
Zuyder  Zee.  From  its  summit  spreads  away  a  glorious 
landscape  toward  the  cliffs  of  beauteous  Little  Compton 
and  West  Island  Light,  at  the  Seaconnet's  mouth — the 
kingdom  of  Queen  Awashonks.  Northward  is  picturesque 
Bristol  Ferry,  and  beyond  is  Bristol ;  on  her  trial  trip  a  new 
yacht  cuts  the  bay  fresh  from  the  chisel  of  the  Herreshoffs. 
The  Gwin  and  Talbot  practised  here  that  "thrilling  dash  of 
the  torpedo  boat  in  the  dark";  such  warlike  preparation 
would  much  disquiet  the  Friends  walking  placidly  up  the 
hill  to  meeting. 

A  mile  from  Quaker  Hill  is  Butt's  Hill,  a  prominent  point 
of  vantage  in  the  Revolution.  In  Portsmouth  also  was 
captured  General  Prescott,  surprised  as  he  slept,  with  a 
light  guard  in  a  lonely  farmhouse  on  the  west  road.  Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel William  Barton  :  was  voted  a  sword  by  Con- 
gress for  his  gallant  act.  He  was  appointed  aide-de-camp 
to  Major-General  Nathanael  Greene,  who,  ere  the  war 
closed,  ranked  next  to  Washington  as  a  general  in  the  eyes 
of  his  countrymen.  The  sharpest  conflict  during  the  battle 
of  Rhode  Island  (or  the  battle  of  Tiverton  Heights)  took 
place  here.  General  Greene  (almost  within  sight  of  his 
birthplace  across  the  bay  at  Potowhommet  in  Warwick 
County)  drove  the  British  back  to  their  Quaker  Hill  re- 

1  Colonel  Barton,  daringly  intent  on  capturing  Prescott,  with  six  picked 
officers  and  thirty-four  men,  rowed  from  Tiverton  to  Bristol  in  whale- 
boats,  thence  to  Warwick  Neck,  where  a  storm  hindered  their  progress; 
embarking  again,  they  passed  in  perfect  silence  between  Patience  and 
Prudence  islands,  and  so  near  the  enemy's  ships  as  to  hear  the  sentinel's 
"All  's  Well!  "  Landing  at  Portsmouth,  the  party  marched  in  divisions 
to  the  farmhouse,  and  secured  the  sentinel  by  stratagem.  Prescott  and 
his  aide  were  carried  in  a  coach  to  Providence,  and  sent,  on  parole,  to 
Connecticut  to  be  in  charge  of  Governor  Trumbull.  (Colonel  Barton's  MS. 
account  of  the  affair  is  among  the  Foster  Miscellanies.} 


Two  Namesakes  01"  George  Washington     433 

doubt  after  they  attempted  to  prevent  the  retreat  of  Sulli- 
van's army  from  the  island.  Of  General  Greene's  brigades 
— under  Generals  Varnum,  Glover,  Cornell,  and  Colonel 
Christopher  Greene — General  Varnum 's  suffered  severest 
loss. 

A  reminiscence  of  Washington's  friendship  with  the 
Major-Generals  Lafayette  and  Greene,  has  been  handed 
down  to  us  from  the  lips  of  Cornelia,  a  daughter  of  General 
Greene : 

"  My  father's  youngest  son,  and  the  son  born  to  Lafayette 
during  the  Revolution,  were  both  named  George  Washing- 
ton. This  fact  abided  with  Lafayette,  and  after  my  father 
died  he  applied  to  my  mother  to  allow  him  to  take  my 
brother  George  to  France,  where  he  might  be  educated  with 
his  George,  so  as  to  perpetuate  the  love  which  had  illus- 
trated the  lives  of  their  fathers.  My  mother  finally  con- 
sented, and  Lafayette's  wish  was  carried  into  effect;  for  the 
boys  grew  up  strong,  in  full  health,  thoroughly  educated, 
and  loving  each  other  as  fondly  as  their  parents  could  have 
wished."  1  It  was  while  spending  a  summer  at  Newport 
that  Mrs.  Greene  met  Eli  Whitney,  and,  becoming  inter- 
ested in  his  experiments,  invited  him  to  her  beautiful  home, 
"Dungeness"  (constructed  for  her  by  General  Greene,  on 
Cumberland  Island,  off  the  coast  of  Georgia),  "where  an 
abundance  of  cotton  and  quiet  might  be  assured";  there 
his  invention  of  the  cotton-gin  was  perfected. 

The  air  is  intoxicating, — we  are  already  in  love  with 
every  mood  of  the  island.  The  rich  soil  confirms  the  story 
that  the  farmer  has  but  to  drop  the  seed  in  and  take  a  nap 
until  the  rising  of  harvest-moon.  Wishing  to  drink  in  the 
early  June  delights  of  South  Portsmouth,  we  alight  at  a  great 

1  Recollections  of  Washington  and  His  Friends.  As  preserved  in  the 
family  of  General  Nathanael  Greene,  by  Martha  Littlefield  Phillips,  a 
granddaughter  of  Edward  Brinley  Littlefield  of  Newport. — The  Century 

Magazine,  January,  1898. 
28 


434  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

willow  growing  out  of  a  tumbling  stone  wall  above  a  little 
brook,  and,  strolling  on,  stop  to  climb  every  other  stone 
wall  for  a  new  view  of  the  Seaconnet,  the  spires  of  Little 
Compton,  and  the  Four  Corners  Church  of  Middletown.  On 
the  left  is  "The  Glen,"  the  estate  of  Henry  A.  C.  Taylor. 
Its  water-wheel  and  palisade  made  this  the  favorite  objec- 
tive point  for  a  drive  from  Newport  in  the  period  when 
early  dinners  prevailed,  and  fishing,  croquet,  and  a  picnic 
at  the  "Dumpling"  were  society's  deepest  dissipations. 

Grand  old  trees  surround  the  Cornelius  Vanderbilt  farm, 
formerly  that  of  August  Belmont ;  toward  the  river  are  the 
Sandy  Point  and  Whitridge  farms.  The  first  road  on  the 
left  leads  to  Vaucluse  on  Wapping  Road,  and  we  scare  up 
many  a  wild  rabbit  from  the  wayside  tangle  of  the  sweet- 
brier  lane,  where  one  aged  homestead  appears  as  if  it  might 
topple  over  should  the  wind  shake  the  embracing  tree  at  its 
stoop.  Vaucluse  was  the  mansion  of  Samuel  Elam,  a 
Quaker,  and  strangely  worldly  for  one  of  the  sect,  yet  when 
reproved  by  the  Friends  he  always  appeared  contrite  and 
promised  to  do  better.  In  true  delightful  Southern  fashion 
he  would  drive  into  old  Newport  and  invite  all  visitors  of 
distinction  to  his  plantation.  On  dit  that  in  his  formal 
garden  the  ladies  might  imagine  themselves  at  Versailles. 
This  was  in  the  gay  French  period  when,  at  the  dances  here 
by  moonlight,  sweet  Polly  Lawton,  the  daughter  of  a 
Quaker,  by  her  naivete  compelled  gay  officers  to  become 
her  devoted  slaves,  and  her  name  is  inscribed  on  a  window- 
pane  of  Rochambeau's  headquarters  in  Newport.  Count 
Segur  says  that  when  calling  upon  her  father, 

"the  door  of  the  drawing-room  opened,  and  a  being  which 
resembled  a  nymph  rather  than  a  woman  entered.  So  much 
beauty,  so  much  simplicity,  so  much  elegance,  and  so  much 
modesty  were  perhaps  never  combined  in  one  person.  Her 
gown  was  white,  like  herself,  while  her  ample  muslin  necker- 


436  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

chief,  and  the  envious  cambric  of  her  cap  seemed  vainly  to 
endeavor  to  conceal  the  most  graceful  and  most  beautiful 
form  imaginable.  Her  eyes  seemed  to  reflect,  as  in  a 
mirror,  the  meekness  and  purity  of  her  mind  and  the  good- 
ness of  her  heart:  she  received  us  with  an  open  ingenuity 
which  delighted  me,  and  the  use  of  the  familiar  'thou,'  which 
the  rules  of  her  sect  prescribed,  gave  our  new  acquaintance 
the  appearance  of  an  old  friendship." 

Quite  as  celebrated  as  Vaucluse  were  the  Malbone  gar- 
dens of  Newport,  where  silverfish  sported  in  many  artificial 
ponds,  and  the  fountains  may  be  said  to  have  showered 
honey  and  wine,  so  luxurious  was  the  country  abode  of 
Godfrey  Malbone.  The  house,  which  overlooked  the  sea  and 
Narraganset  Bay,  inclosed  a  circular  mahogany  staircase  to 
the  top,  as  expensive  alone  as  the  entire  Brenton  house. 
The  story  goes  that  one  day,  while  guests  were  being  sumptu- 
ously entertained  by  the  Malbones,  the  house  caught  fire ;  the 
host  commanded  that  the  tables  should  be  reset  on  the  lawn, 
for  "though  my  house  is  lost,  the  dinner  shall  not  be,"  and 
forthwith  the  feast  was  finished  by  the  light  of  the  flames.1 

Middletown,  once  "Ye  woods"  of  Newport,  is  the  only 
town  in  Rhode  Island  without  a  village  or  a  post-office. 
One  of  its  historical  estates  is  Ogden  farm,  on  Love  Lane. 

Whitehall,2  the  home  of  Dean  Berkeley,  which  he  pre- 
sented to  Yale  College,  is  not  far  distant,  but  it  is  best  to 

1  Not  long  ago  two  Malbone  chairs  were  sent  by  Hartford  descendants 
to  be  repaired:  the  furniture  dealer  reported  that  the  legs  were  somewhat 
scorched  at  the  back,  whereby  these  heirlooms  testified  in  favor  of  the 
truth  of  the  "dinner  story  " 

Godfrey  Malbone  owned  also  Ochre  Point,  a  part  of  the  original  grant 
to  one  Brassie.  It  was  purchased  of  Malbone  by  Robert  Taylor,  and 
known  as  the  Taylor  farm,  until  the  eminent  jurist,  William  Beach  Lau- 
rence, gave  the  name,  Ochre  Point,  to  his  estate  of  sixty-nine  acres,  pur- 
chased for  $ifi,ooo.  His  nearest  neighbor  was  the  Hon.  George  Bancroft. 

2  Whitehall  is  to  be  under  the  custody  of  the  Colonial  Dames  of  Rhode 
Island  and  preserved  as  a  landmark.     The  key  may  be  obtained  at  a 


Whitehall  437 

visit  that  on  another  day,  driving  out  from  Newport  by  way 
of  Sachuset  Beach,  Purgatory  (many  traditions  has  this 
cavernous  gap  in  the  rock  of  a  leap  across  for  true  love's 
sake),  the  Hanging  Rocks,  and  the  Swamp  Road.  Dr. 
George  Berkeley,  Lord  Bishop  of  Cloyne,  to  whom  Pope 
ascribed  "every  virtue  under  heaven,"  composed  his  finest 
works  seated  in  a  fissure  of  the  Hanging  Rocks,  to  which  he 
climbed  by  the  natural  winding  stairway  from  the  beach. 
A  little  shoe  was  found  in  the  plaster  of  the  Dean's  home,  be- 
lieved to  be  that  of  his  little  daughter  Lucia  who  lies  in 
Trinity  churchyard.  On  the  morning  of  Dean  Berkeley's 
arrival  at  Newport,  Mr.  Honyman,  the  rector  of  Trinity, 
received  a  note  while  in  his  pulpit  that  the  Dean  was  on 
board  a  ship  anchored  in  the  west  passage,  and  might  be  ex- 
pected to  land  at  any  moment.  The  congregation  was  dis- 
missed, and  Mr.  Honyman,  with  the  wardens,  vestry,  and 
parishioners,  repaired  to  Ferry  Wharf  to  greet  him. 

The  good  Dean  found  awaiting  him  the  Redwoods  of 
Antigua,  the  Bretts  of  Germany,  the  De  Courcys  of  Ire- 
land, Sueton  Grant, — a  Grant  of  Grant  in  the  County  of 
Inverness,  who  was  made  a  Freeman  of  Newport  in  1734, — 
and  Edward  Scott,  the  uncle  of  Sir  Walter  Scott,  so  cos- 
mopolitan were  Newport's  sojourners  even  then. 

Turning  back  from  Vaucluse  to  the  Vanderbilt  farm  on 
the  East  Road,  we  stand  before  the  great  gate  of  beautiful 
St.  Mary's  Church,  standing  in  memory  of  Raymond  Bel- 
mont.  Behind  secluding  trees  are  glimpses  of  its  vine-clad 
walls,  the  peaceful  churchyard, — it  is  such  a  picture  as 
Frederick  Tennyson  depicts: 

"Here  sweet  birds  had  swung 
Their  dewy  cradles,  and  flew  in  and  out 
From  sun  to  shadow,  and  brought  to  their  homes 
Sparks  from  the  life  of  the  great  summer  day." 

farmhouse  near  by.  It  has  been  for  some  years  under  a  committee 
organized  for  the  preservation  of  Whitehall,  the  chairman  being  Mrs.  A. 
Livingston  Mason,  Halidon  Hall,  Newport. 


438  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

Leaving  this  serene  inclosure  we  take  up  our  journey  to- 
ward Newport.  The  "Briar  Tea-House"  on  the  William 
Meyers  estate  was  the  scene  of  countless  festivities  ere  golf 
eclipsed  all  other  summer  pleasures.  On  the  right  is  South- 
wick's  grove.  At  Congdon  farm  miles  of  breezy  green  turf, 
squared  with  stone  walls,  separate  us  from  Easton's  pond, 
the  beach,  and  the  open  sea.  There  are  many  ponds  on  the 
island  white  with  lilies.  The  homestead  of  the  old  Easton 
farm  was  the  headquarters  of  Lord  Percy  when  commander 
of  the  British  troops  in  Rhode  Island.  He  protected  the 
Redwood  Library  from  despoilment,  and  would  not  allow 
one  of  the  seventy  fine  sycamores  to  be  cut  down  for  fuel; 
they  were  standing  when  the  farm  was  purchased  by  Robert 
Johnston,  one  of  the  many  distinguished  benefactors  of  the 
Redwood  Library ;  it  was-  he  who  planted  the  glorious  fern- 
leaf  beech  before  its  gate,  the  pride  of  Newport.  At  his 
suggestion  were  elected  as  honorary  members  the  Duke  of 
Northumberland  (son  of  Lord  Percy),  Lord  Lyndhurst, 
Baron  Hottinguer,  A.  Agar  Ellis,  Librarian  of  the  British 
Museum,  and  others,  through  whom  rare  books  were  ob- 
tained for  this  the  finest  of  the  colonial  libraries. 

Southwest  shimmers  the  same  harbor  which  held,  in  1524, 
for  fifteen  days  the  caravel  of  Verazzano.  Beaver  Tail  Light 
and  Point  Judith  are  sighted  here.  On  Castle  Hill  stand  the 
villas  of  Professor  Agassiz,  the  Winans,  and  Huttons  of  Bal- 
timore ;  passing  the  Andrews  and  Dr.  Bull  estates,  Newport 
opens  her  three  gateways  —  the  social,  historic,  and  the 
picturesque. 


NEWPORT,  1638 


NEWPORT,  city  of  the  sea, 
will  bewilder  you  with  a  thou- 
sand delights ;  she  has  her  water- 
courses, her  palaces  of  modern 
splendor,  her  treasures  of  art, 
and  variegated  cliffs  topped  by 
a  white-ribbon  promenade ;  her 
wars  and  councils  of  wars  of 
many  nations,  her  remarkable 
Hebrew  community,  phantom 
fleets  crowding  Long  Wharf  with 
the  wrorld's  merchandise,  even 
with  a  dark  cargo  from  West 
Africa's  shore,  or  a  close -rigged 
privateer  of  Captain  Kidd  and 

the  freebooters  whose  spoil  is  sought  in  vain  on  these  shores ; 
her  fete  days,  when  the  city  appears  in  gala  array  from  bow 
to  stern — from  Fort  Adams  to  Ochre  Point.  On  these  oc- 
casions "The  Point"  is  again  the  "Court  End,"  the  Ocean 
Drive — Newport's  Rotten  Row — being  deserted  for  the 
nonce ;  now  all  the  festive  paraphernalia  is  at  Blue  Rocks 
— the  harbor's  balcony.  Wave-tossed  Narraganset  Bay, 
with  Conanicut  Island  as  a  background,  is  filled  with  craft 
from  sunrise  to  evening  gun.  Yonder  training-ship,  an- 
chored off  dismantled  Fort  Green,  salutes  with  flags  flying. 
The  celebrated  Newport  Artillery,  organized  on  account 
of  war  with  Spain  in  1741,  garrisoned  this  fort  in  1812; 
their  first  commander,  the  son  of  Governor  William  Bren- 
ton, — first  president  of  Aquidneck,  and  surveyor-general 
commissioned  by  the  King,  consequently  owning  great 

439 


440  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

landed  estates  in  several  colonies, — was  Jahleel  Brenton, 
who  built  the  Brenton  homestead  and  Hammersmith,  the 


and    Mary    Sts.,    residence 
E.     Read,    headquarters    of 


NEWPORT 

LANDMARKS :  State  House,  Wash- 
ington portrait  by  Stuart.  Statue  of 
Commodore  Perry.  Gov.  Bull  house, 
Spring  St.  (1639),  oldest  house  in 
R.  I.  Maxon  house,  corner  Spring  St. 
Wanton  house,  Broadway.  Daniel 
Hazard  house,  Broadway.  Mum- 
ford-Rowland  R.  Hazard  house,  The 
Parade.  Vaughan  estate,  The  Par- 
ade. Sueton  Grant  house  (1675), 
Hammett's  Court.  Finch  house, 
School  St.  Clark-Weaver  house, 
Walnut  St.  The  "  White  Horse  " 
tavern,  or  Nichols  homestead,  Marl- 
borough  St.,  near  State  House.  Mum- 
ford  homestead,  Cross  St.  Friends' 
Meeting  -  House.  Vernon  house, 
Clarke 
of  H. 

Count  de  Rochambeau.  Champlin 
house,  residence  of  Mrs.  Duncan 
C.  Pell.  Gen.  Prescott's  Headquar- 
ters, Pelham  St.  Governor  Van 
Zandt  house.  Touro  Park.  "  My 
Stone-Built  Windmill,"  built  by 
Governor  Arnold  after  one  at  his 
Chesterton  home  said  to  be  designed 
by  Inigo  Jones.  Channing  Memor- 
ial Church.  The  Jewish  Cemetery, 
land  purchased  1677,  poem  by  Long- 
fellow. Newport  Historical  Rooms, 
formerly  Seventh  Baptist  Meeting- 
House  (1729).  The  Jewish  Syna- 
gogue, oldest  in  U.  S.  Brenton 
house.  William  Ellery  homestead, 
3  Thames  St.  Hunter  house  at  The 
Point,  property  of  Dr.  Horatio  R. 
Storer.  Robinson  homestead,  sum- 
mer residence  of  a  descendant,  Ben- 
jamin Smith.  War  College.  Lime 
Rocks,  home  of  Ida  Lewis.  Morton 
Park.  Ocean  Drive.  Lily  Pond. 
Easton's  Beach,  Forty  Steps. 

Supplementary :      Mason's     Remi- 


great  four -chimney  house  near 
Fort  Adams  on  Brenton 's  Neck, 
which  he  filled  continually  with  his 
friends. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  last  war 
with  Spain  the  ships-of-war  and 
martial  preparations  recalled  a 
saying  that  Rhode  Island  "loves 
to  fight  if  she  can  fight  on  the 
sea."  Her  favorite  naval  hero 
was  the  author  of  the  dispatch 
after  victory  of  the  Lawrence  on 
Lake  Erie,  "We  have  met  the  en- 
emy and  they  are  ours."  Thence- 
forward highest  honors  '  were  paid 
to  Commodore  Oliver  Hazard 
Perry  throughout  the  Union. 

Early  in  the  Revolution,  New- 
port was  thought  to  be  the  key  to 
the  possession  of  New  England  and 
the  desired  prize  for  occupation. 

All  history  in  Newport  dates 
from  before  and  after  the  British 
occupation.  In  the  zenith  of  her 
glory,  her  commerce  was  greater 
than  that  of  New  York  (the  New- 
port Mercury  stated:  "if  the  com- 
merce of  New  York  continues  to 
improve  at  the  present  rapid  rate 


1  The  silver  memorial  gift  of  the  city  of  Newport  to  Commodore  Perry, 
and  his  portrait  by  Gilbert  Stuart,  are  in  the  possession  of  Oliver  Hazard 
Perry,  Esq.,  of  Lowell,  Mass. 


442  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 


niscences  of  Newport,  Charles  E   Ham-    ft     w^     soon     equal     that     of 

mett,  Jr.,  pub.     Early  Recollections  of 

Newport,    by    George    G.    Channing.  i  pOlt    )  J  With  the  advent  of  the  Bfit- 


Ne wport  by  w  c ••  BrowneiL  History  ish  and  the  German  allied  troops, 

of  the  State  of  Rhode  Island,  by  Samuel 

Greene  Arnold.  The  Household  of  Newport,  the  "  Intellectual  Constel- 
%SZSS£im  f'T'^  lation  of  the  Western  Hemisphere," 

Sketch  of  the  Redwood  Library,  by  David 

King,  M.D.  was    undone.      Many   inhabitants 

abandoned  their  homes  at  the  sight  of  Sir  Henry  Clinton's 
British  fleet ;  and  their  empty  houses  were  occupied  by  the 
Landgraf  (Elector's)  and  Ditfurth  regiments.  During  the 
last  bitter  winter,  for  want  of  supplies  and  fuel,  many  of 
the  unfortunate  soldiers  perished  in  the  "Hessian"  snow- 
storm.1 

Several  British  were  quartered  at  Quaker  Tom  Robinson's 
house  on  The  Point.  Two  officers  of  rank  fell  madly  in  love 
with  the  charming  Miss  Mary  and  Miss  Abby  Robinson. 
Mrs.  Robinson,  viewing  their  suit  with  disfavor,  obtained 
permission  for  her  daughters  to  be  ferried  across  to  rela- 
tives at  Narraganset.  The  officers  besought  her  to  allow 
them  to  bring  back  the  exiles,  but  the  mother  remained 
obdurate.  When  the  French  fleet  arrived  in  1780,  the 
Comte  de  Noailles  wras  quartered  at  the  Robinsons';  "he 
had  his  own  cook,  valet,  and  other  servants,  and  during  the 
absence  of  the  '  exiled  enchantresses '  daily  sent  them  billets- 
doux  and  poetry.  As  the  Count  was  a  married  man,  the 

1  Max  Von  Eelking,  Captain  Saxon-Meiningen  Army,  and  a  member  of 
the  Historical  Society  of  New  York,  has  compiled  from  the  journals  of  his 
countrymen  an  account  of  their  experiences  in  America.  Mr.  Rosen- 
garten,  in  the  preface  to  his  translation  of  The  German  Allied  Troops  in 
the  North  American  War  of  Independence,  says  that  Von  Eelking  has  sought 
to  protect  and  restore  the  good  name  and  credit  of  the  German  soldiers, 
ruthlessly  attacked  on  all  sides  for  their  share  in  the  Revolutionary  War( 
"  although  they  did  so  in  strict  obedience  to  the  orders  of  their  civil  and 
military  superiors."  A  brief  summary  of  the  "Defence  of  the  Hessians 
and  Their  Princes,"  "who  ever  since  the  Revolutionary  War  have  been 
treated  with  lofty  scorn  and  contempt."  is  contributed  by  Joseph  G. 
Rosengarten  to  the  Pennsylvania  Magazine  for  July,  1899. 


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444  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

girls  were  allowed  to  come  back,"  and  during  his  stay  per- 
fected themselves  in  French,  a  language  familiar  since  child- 
hood. The  Comtesse  de  Noailles  sent  Mrs.  Robinson  a 
tete-h-tete  service  of  Sevres  with  a  letter  expressing  gratitude 
for  Mrs.  Robinson's  constant  kindness  to  her  husband.1  Her 
words  reflect  the  cruelty  of  war  in  causing  unutterable  anx- 
iety to  those  whom  our  French  allies  left  behind.  Had  we  a 
letter  also  from  the  heroic  wife  of  Lafayette,  the  young  and 
lovely  Adrienne  de  Noailles,  what  unhappiness  might  not  she, 
too,  have  expressed  on  account  of  the  absent  one  who  adored 
her ;  yet  she,  believing  that  he  was  appointed  to  accomplish 
the  good  of  the  world ,  had  gracefully  acquiesced  in  his  deter- 
mination to  cross  the  sea,  ruled  by  his  passion  for  Freedom. 
Lafayette  was  only  nineteen  years  of  age  when  he  said,  "I 
will  join  the  Americans — I  will  help  them  fight  for  freedom.'* 
Obliged  to  steal  away  from  France  in  1776,  like  a  fugitive, 
Lafayette  was  showered  with  honors  on  his  return  from 
America,  and  sailed  the  second  time  for  his  adopted  country 
with  the  Vicomte  de  Noailles,  Messieurs  de  Luzerne,  de 
Chastellux,  de  Montesquieu,  and  Duplessis-Maudit. 

1  The  Comtesse  de  Noailles  writes  in  part:  "Since  you  know  him, 
madam,  you  will  be  able  to  judge  of  my  uneasiness  and  of  the  continual 
alarms  I  am  exposed  to  on  his  account.  .  .  .  I  have  a  double  obliga- 
tion to  you,  madam,  for  having  admitted  him  into  an  intimate  acquaintance 
with  your  family.  He  will  see  there  each  day,  that  real  happiness  is  not 
to  be  found  in  the  pursuit  of  military  glory,  to  which,  nevertheless,  men 
make  cruel  sacrifices!  May  I  hope,  madam,  that  you  will  permit  me  to 
present  you  some  tea-cups  of  a  manufactory  we  have  here,  and  that  in 
drinking  your  tea  with  your  charming  daughters  you  will  sometimes 
think  of  me."  This  is  one  of  the  letters  included  in  George  Champlin 
Mason's  interesting  Reminiscences  of  Newport.  Mr.  Mason's  grand- 
mother was  the  beautiful  Margaret  Champlin,  "Miss  Peggy."  The  Prince 
de  Broglie  says,  "That  same  evening  M.  Vauban  introduced  us  at  the  house 
of  Mr.  Champlin,  well  known  to  us  for  his  wealth,  but  much  more  known 
in  the  army  for  the  lovely  face  of  his  daughter.  .  .  .  She  had  beautiful" 
eyes  and  an  agreeable  mouth,  a  pretty  foot  .  .  .  she  added  to  all  these 
advantages  that  of  being  dressed  and  coiffee  with  taste,  that  is  to  say,  in 
the  French  fashion,  besides  which  she  spoke  and  understood  our  language." 


Rochambeau  Entertains  Washington      445 

When  General  Washington  paid  Rochambeau  a  visit  in 
1781,  Newport  revived,  and  the  French  officers  arranged  a 
procession  by  torchlight  and  other  festivities  in  his  honor. 
Washington  was  accorded  all  the  honors  of  a  Marshal  of 
France,  and  left  for  Providence  under  the  French  salute  of 
thirteen  guns  from  Wonametonomy  Hill. 

At  the  brilliant  affair  held  at  Mrs.  Cowley's  Assembly 
Rooms,  the  noble  dames,  "though  robbed  of  their  wealth  by 
war,"  appeared  in  superb  brocades  with  embroidered  petti- 
coats and  were  pleased  to  "foot  it"  with  such  noblemen  as 
De  Segur,  M.  Vauban,  Baron  de  Viomesnil,  and  De  Latouche 
for  partners.  The  favorite  dance  of  the  moment  was  ' '  Stony 
Point"  because  of  its  recent  successful  storming  by  General 
Wayne.  The  soft  light  from  silver  candelabra  was  re- 
flected in  beautiful  mirrors  loaned  from  old  mansions,  as 
Washington  opened  the  ball  with  beautiful  Miss  Champlin 
under  festoons  of  bunting  looped  with  rosettes  of  swords 
and  pistols ;  Rochambeau,  wearing  the  Grand  Croix  de  I'Ordre 
Royal,  and  his  suite  took  the  instruments  and  played  the 
dance  selected  by  the  partner  of  General  Washington,  The 
Successful  Campaign,  followed  by  Pea  Straw  and  /'//  be 
Married  in  my  Old  Clothes  and  Boston's  Delight,  in  honor  of 
the  guests  from  that  city. 

For  some  years  it  was  not  uncommon  for  Boston  people 
to  make  the  two-days'  journey  each  way  to  attend  the 
theatre  at  Newport.  The  famous  "Old  American  Com- 
pany" came  first  to  Newport  in  1761.  On  the  playbills  was 
printed,  "  Ladies  will  please  send  their  servants  to  keep  their 
places  at  4  o'clock."  At  6  the  masters  and  mistresses 
arrived  and  hunted  up  the  servants  to  claim  the  seats  se- 
cured. Malbone's  first  triumph  was  a  scene  painted  for 
this  little  theatre.  His  miniatures  never  failed  to  possess  a 
delicate,  unrivalled  beauty  and  are  greatly  coveted,  for  Mai- 
bone  did  not  permit  his  subjects  to  indulge  in  the  vagaries 


446  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

of  fashion,  and  begged  that  the  powdered  pile  should  be 
allowed  to  fall  in  natural  waves,  caught  with,  perhaps,  a 
filmy  silver  or  blue  bandeau. 

One  of  the  loveliest  heads  from  Malbone's  pencil,  linked 
to  a  romance  of  the  French  stay  in  Newport,  is  that  of  Mrs. 
Benjamin  Hazard,  whose  mother,  Mary,  otherwise  "  sweet 
Polly  Wanton,"  daughter  of  John  Wanton  (son  of  Governor 
Gideon  Wanton),  was  wooed  and  won  by  Major  Lyman, 
aide-de-camp  of  General  Heath,  whose  mission  to  Newport 
was  to  welcome  the  French  fleet.  Their  tiresome  voyage 
of  seventy  days  ended  in  dense  fog,  and  Martha's  Vineyard 
fishermen  piloted  them  into  Newport;  as  the  mists  softly 
retreated  in  the  way  they  have  at  that  city,  our  allies,  sur- 
prised and  transported  with  joy,  saw  at  the  harbor's  en- 
trance two  French  flags  flying  the  lilies,  a  delicate  attention 
paid  them  by  Lafayette,  recalling  their  absent  country,  and 
assuring  them  that  the  English  had  not  been  successful  in 
driving  away  the  American  forces  from  Rhode  Island. 

The  exit  of  the  British  from  Newport  had  been  a  striking 
one.  General  Prescott  commanded  that  the  shutters  be 
closed,  and  the  patrols  enforced  the  order  that  not  a  man 
or  woman  be  allowed  on  the  street  as  they  marched  out. 
Many  royalists  went  away  with  the  British  fleet  of  102  sail. 
The  soldiers  marched  off  with  the  product  of  the  fruit  trees, 
which  had  been  given  them,  also,  unhappily,  with  the 
records  of  Newport,  which  had  not.  Six  months  later 
Lafayette  wrote  Washington  from  Newport  respecting  our 
army:  "The  patience  and  sobriety  of  our  militia  is  so  much 
admired  that  two  days  ago  a  French  colonel  assembled  his 
officers  to  persuade  them  to  follow  the  good  example  given 
by  the  American  troops.  On  the  other  hand,  the  French 
discipline  is  such  that  chickens  and  hogs  walk  among  the 
tents  without  any  one  disturbing  them,  and  there  is  a  field 
of  maize  in  the  camp  not  a  leaf  of  which  has  been  touched." 


Newport 


447 


For  many  years  a  familiar  sight  in  Newport  was  a  pro- 
cession of  hardy  seamen  passing  down  Mary  Street,  bearing 
upon  their  shoulders  immense  hempen  cables  with  apparent 
ease,  destined  for  some  American  frigate  and  made  at  the 
rope-walks  of  Francis .  Brinley  (who,  by  the  way,  married 
Adelph,  daughter  of  Godfrey  Malbone).  An  incident  con- 


"  Beacon  Rock." 
Residence  of  Edwin  D.  Morgan,  Esq.,  Brenton's  Cove. 

nected  with  this  rope-walk,  which  commanded  the  harbor, 
touches  upon  the  constant  vexations  and  suspense  undergone 
in  disputed  territory.  Thomas  Coggeshall  related  to  Mr. 
Arnold,  the  historian,  that  when  a  boy  on  his  father's  farm 
he  was  compelled  by  the  enemy  to  cart  stones  for  many 
months  from  The  Point  to  Brinley's  rope-walk  on  the  hill. 
"One  day  [29th  July,  1778],  the  officers  came  down  from 


44^  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

the  hill,  and  by  their  actions  it  was  evident  that  something 
important  was  in  their  knowledge,  and  when  we  got  to  the 
top  of  the  hill  with  our  loads  we  saw  far  off  the  fleet  of 
Count  d'Estaing — darsn't  laugh — not  then,"  said  Mr.  Cogge- 
shall.  Count  d'Estaing,  having  blockaded  the  enemy,  en- 
tered Newport  harbor  under  a  heavy  cannonade  from 
British  batteries,  and  was  about  to  land  four  thousand  men 
to  co-operate  with  General  Sullivan,  when,  unexpectedly, 
Lord  Howe  was  sighted  off  Point  Judith  and  D'Estaing * 
eager  for  battle,  again  put  to  sea. 

Rochambeau  much  admired  the  patriotism  of  the  farmers, 
and  related  in  his  Memoirs  an  incident  which  took  place  on 
his  journey  from  Newport  to  Hartford,  undertaken  in  order 
to  meet  Washington  in  a  long-planned  interview.2 

1  Admiral  Count  d'Estaing,  as  President  of  the  French  Society  of  the 
Cincinnati — composed  of  the  most  illustrious  military  officers  of  France — 
presented  to  General  Washington,  in  1784,  in  behalf  of  the  French  naval 
officers,  the  insignia  of  the  Society  set  in  diamonds,  which  has  been 
transmitted  to  each  President  General  of  the  oldest  military  organization 
in  America.     The  insignia  of  the  Cincinnati,  designed  by  Major  L'Enfant, 
who  planned  the  city  of  Washington,  is  suspended  from  a  light-blue 
ribbon  edged  with  white,  emblematic  of  the  union  between  France  and 
America.     Louis  XVI.  granted   special  permission  to  the  French  Cincin- 
nati to  wear  the  order,  an  exceptional  privilege,  since  no  other  foreign 
order  except  the  Golden  Fleece  was  allowed. 

2  It  seems  that  near  Windham  Rochambeau's  carriage  broke  down,  his 
first  aide-de-camp,  Count  de  Fersen  (called  "the  friend  of  the  Queen" 
[Marie  Antoinette]  and  so  devoted  indeed  to  the  welfare  of  the  Court  that 
on  his  return  to  France,  disguised  in  coachman's  livery,  he  attended  the 
King  in  his  flight  to  Varennes),  found  a  wheelwright,  who,  suffering  with 
fever,  declined  to  work  "if  they  filled  his  hat  with  guineas."     Rocham- 
beau entreated,  urging  the  necessity  of  his  conference  with  Washington. 
Finding  that  it  was  for  the  public  service  the  wheelwright  consented  to 
mend  the  coach.     Returning,  they  were  obliged  to  call  upon  the  same 
man  to  mend  the  wheel.     "Well!    once  more  you  ask  me  to  mend  at 
night?"     "Alas,  yes,"  said  Rochambeau;  "Admiral  Rodney  has  arrived 
to  triple  the  naval  force  of  the  enemy,  and  it  is  urgent  that  we  should 
oppose  his  plans."     "But  what  are  you  going  to  do  with  your  six  ships 
against   twenty-eight   vessels?"     Rochambeau  replied,  "It  will   be   the 


The  Hunter  House 


449 


The  house  of  Colonel  Joseph  Wanton,  Jr.,  built  by  Deputy- 
Governor  Jonathan  Nichols,  is  best  known  as  the  "Hunter 
house."  William  Hunter  was  minister  to  Brazil,  and  had 
three  accomplished  daughters,  much  sought  after  in  New- 
port and  later  in  Switzerland.  Eliza  Hunter's  miniature 
was  painted  by  Copley  on  the  clasp  of  a  bracelet,  before  her 
blindness.  Katharine  married  a  nobleman  of  the  old  regime, 
Comte  de  Cardignan.  The  Due  de  Lauzun,  obliged  to 


The  Vanderbilt  Arch,  Newport. 

leave  Newport  with  his  cavalry  on  account  of  scarcity  of 
provisions,  and  to  winter  in  barracks  at  Lebanon,  Conn.,  re- 
gretted especially  leaving  the  Hunter  family,  "  among  whom 
he  had  been  received  and  treated  as  a  relation,  and  whose 
virtues  silenced,  by  exception,  his  frivolous  instincts  and 
gallant  fickleness."1 

grandest  day  of  our  lives  if  they  attempt  to  attack  us  in  our  roadstead." 
"Come,"  said  the  wheelwright,  "you  are  a  brave  people,  you  shall  have 
your  carriage." — Balch. 

1  The  French   in   America,  by  Thomas  Balch,  translated  by  Thomas 
Willing  Balch. 


45°  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

This  house,  standing  on  Washington  Street,  was  unique 
in  its  huge  carved  pineapple  over  the  door  and  the  secret 
staircase  of  Colonel  Higginson's  romance,  laid  in  little  old 
Newport  by  the  bay — Oldport,  he  calls  it.  And  Oldpoft  is 
every  evening  startled  out  of  quiet  dreams,  "  after  the  New 
England  curfew  has  rung  and  bugle  sounded  from  the  fort, 
by  seeing  glide  along  with  a  subdued  noise  of  parting,  rush- 
ing waters,  the  huge  form  of  a  'Sound  steamer,'  touched 
by  the  magic  wand  of  the  fairy  electricity,  and  shining  like 
a  street  in  the  New  Jerusalem."1 

"May-week"  in  Newport,  when  the  Government  took  its 
seat  there,  always  eclipsed  all  other  events,  and  May-day 
is  even  now  celebrated,  according  to  the  Devonshire 
custom,  with  blue  eggs  and  diabread.  The  festive  week 
was  inaugurated  as  the  Sheriff  stepped  out  on  the  State 
House  balcony,  crying,  "Hear  ye,  hear  ye,"  and  announced 
that  the  Governor  had  taken  his  seat.  From  this  balcony, 
in  1761,  the  death  of  George  II.  was  proclaimed  to  the  troops 
massed,  with  arms  reversed,  on  "the  Grand  Parade"  below. 
The  learned  Rev.  Dr.  Ezra  Stiles  preached  the  funeral  ser- 
mon. Then  followed  the  proclamation:  "George  III., 
King  of  Great  Britain !  long  live  the  King ! '  There  was  a 
great  ferment  among  the  people  when  the  commissioners 
arrived  at  Long  Wharf  to  sit  on  the  case  of  the  burning  of 
the  Gaspee,  and  crossed  "the  Strand," — as  the  water-front 
below  Thames  Street  was  called, — passing  through  Queen 
Street  (the  present  Mall)  and  The  Parade  up  the  classic 
court-house  (afterwards  the  State  House)  steps  into  the 
Council  Chamber  with  their  escort.  Among  those  who 
were  to  pass  judgment  on  the  crucial  matter — hiding  a  far 
weightier  national  issue — were  Governor  Joseph  Wanton, 
Peter  Oliver,  Chief  Justice  of  New  York,  and  Robert  Auch- 

1  "A  Haunt  of  Peace,"  by  W.  Henry  Winslow.  The  Christian 
Register,  June  17,  1897. 


Old  Trinity 


muty,  Judge  of  Vice- Admiralty.  At  this  time  many  hand- 
some estates  faced  The  Parade,  among  them  the  Vaughan 
and  Dr.  Halliburton 
houses,  the  Mumf  ord 
house,  now  known 
as  the  Rowland  R. 
Hazard  house ,  whose 
owners  were  shortly 
to  proclaim  a  divi- 
sion in  sentiment, 
some  for  the  United 
Colonies,  others  for 
the  King. 

Old  Trinity's  sil- 
ver bell  rang  out 
clearly  through  all 
the  fortunes  of  New- 
port, its  mitre  tip 
saving  it  from  the 
invader  and  the 
iconoclast.  No 
walls  could  tell  more 
of  the  vicissitudes  of 
Rhode  I  sland ,  —  of 
famous  men  of  all 
sects  and  climes  who 
have  passed  under 
the  shadow  of  her 
classic  spire,  and  of 
those  who  now  rest 
there.  The  square  Old  Trinity's  Spire. 

pews  of  Trinity  are  still  held  in  fee  simple;  its  vaulted 
ceiling,  carved  with  grapes  and  roses,  the  verger-staves  on 
the  wardens'  pews,  the  beautiful  organ  case  of  English  oak 


45 2  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

surmounted  by  crown  and  mitres  presented  by  Dean  Berke- 
ley, and  the  clock,  a  gift  of  Jahleel  Brenton,  are  quite  the 
same  as  in  the  colonial  days  when  the  Rt.  Rev.  Samuel  Sea- 
bury,  the  earliest  American  bishop,  preached  his  first  ordin- 
ation sermon  from  yonder  high  pulpit.  The  window  in 
memory  of  Cornelius  Vanderbilt  is  particularly  beautiful. 
Near  the  gate  of  the  churchyard  r  the  stranger  reads  the 
Huguenot  name,  Ayrault,  the  English  names  Honyman, 
Kay,  and  the  name  of  a  noble  Frenchman.  The  Chevalier 
de  Ternay  died  suddenly  when  quartered  at  the  Hunter 
house  on  The  Point.  On  Decoration  Day,  1902,  his  country- 
men came  to  Newport  in  order  to  place  a  wreath  on  his 
tomb.  On  the  way  they  stopped  before  the  headquarters 
of  General  Rochambeau.  This  fine  colonial  house  was  given 
over  to  Rochambeau 's  use  by  the  ardent  merchant  patriot, 
William  Vernon,  who  lost  no  less  than  twelve  thousand 
pounds  sterling,  besides  his  estate  in  Newport,  in  the  cause 
of  Liberty  without  a  murmur,  declaring  "it  never  broke  my 
rest  for  a  moment. ' '  His  brother,  Thomas  Vernon,  the  royal 
postmaster,  was  no  less  ardent  as  a  Tory.  He  was  banished 
from  Newport  to  the  little  town  of  Gloucester,  with  John 
Nicoll,  comptroller  of  customs,  Nicholas  Lechmere,  and 
Richard  Beale,  by  virtue  of  the  Test  Act,  through  which 
any  one  of  the  eighty-two  members  of  the  Assembly  could 
place  a  suspected  neighbor  on  the  question  rack  and  sum- 
mon him  to  sign  the  declaration  of  loyalty  to  the  United 
American  Colonies.  Thomas  Vernon  kept  a  Diary  of 
their  three-months'  exile  on  parole.2 

J  On  Farewell  Street  (thus  named  because  it  leads  to  Newport's  ceme- 
tery) is  the  little  burying-ground  of  the  first  Governors  of  the  Colony. 
Here  are  the  graves  of  the  Governors  Nicholas  Easton,  Henry  Bull,  John 
Wanton,  Caleb  Carr,  and  a  monument  to  Governor  William  Coddington, 
"that  illustrious  man,  who  first  purchased  the  Island  from  the  Narra- 
ganset  Sachems." 

2  The  Dairy  of  Thomas  Vernon,  with  notes  by  Sidney  S.  Rider.  Rhode 
Island  Historical  Tracts,  No.  13. 


The  Redwood  Library  453 

On  the  other  hand,  the  patriot  William  Vernon  was  one 
of  the  committee  of  correspondence  and  a  member  of  the 
Continental  Navy  Board  at  Boston  with  James  Warren 
and  John  Deshon ;  Mr.  Vernon's  wide  association  in  trade 
with  all  the  maritime  nations  of  Europe  made  his  advice 
in  marine  affairs  invaluable  to  Congress.  Mr.  Vernon  suc- 
ceeded Henry  Marchant  as  president  of  the  Redwood  Li- 
brary; other  presidents  were  Jonathan  Easton,  David 
King,  Audley  Clarke,  and  the  Francis  Brinley  of  this  gen- 
eration. The  Doric  Library  building,  with  its  classic  arch 
of  uncommon  beauty,  designed  by  Peter  Harrison,  was 
placed  on  the  "  Bowling  Green  "  site,  given  by  Henry  Collins, 
a  patron  of  art,  called  by  Dr.  Waterhouse  the  Lorenzo  de' 
Medici  of  Rhode  Island.  In  the  portrait  gallery  of  the 
Redwood  Library  are  works  of  Sully,  Rembrandt,  Peale, 
Stuart,  Sir  Thomas  Lawrence's  portrait  of  the  grandson  of 
the  founder,  Abraham  Redwood ;  a  portrait  of  Polly  Law- 
ton,  and  one  of  the  Rev.  John  Callender,  whose  Cen- 
tury Sermon — the  earliest  history  of  Rhode  Island — was 
preached  in  the  present  building  of  the  Historical  Society, 
the  old  Seventh  Day  Baptist  Church,  erected  in  1729. 
Newport's  matchless  painting  is  the  full-length  portrait  of 
Washington  by  Gilbert  Stuart. 

About  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  a  wave  of 
fashion  swept  into  Newport.  The  "  F.  F.  V.'s"  arrived  in 
their  own  schooners  with  servants  and  horses  from  Rich- 
mond,1 from  Charleston,  and  Savannah,  to  enjoy  the  luxu- 
ries of  a  northern  watering-place,  whose  climate  is  softened 
by  the  winds  from  the  Gulf  Stream.  Ochre  Point  is  the 
most  valuable  land  bordering  on  the  Atlantic,  but  not  from 
the  intrinsic  value  of  its  yellow  clay.  The  social  history  of 

1  Notable  Southern  families  associated  with  Newport  are  the  Ran- 
dolphs, Myers,  and  Lathams  of  Virginia,  the  Marions,  Rutledges,  Gists, 
Smiths,  Haynes,  and  Kinlocks  of  South  Carolina. 


454  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

Newport  since  1865  has  been  interestingly  classified  as  the 
" Travers-Jerome,  Astor-Belmont,  and  Vanderbilt  eras." 
"Before  the  excessively  formal  New  York  period,"  Phila- 
delphia, Baltimore,  and  Boston  were  also  much  in  evidence, 
with  the  old  New  Yorkers  adding  to  the  high  charm  of 
Newport  society,  and  their  sons  are  ever  loyal  to  the  tradi- 
tions of  the  old  town  on  the  tip  of  beautiful  Aquidneck,  the 
Peaceful  Isle. 


Easton's  Beach,  Newport. 


PROVIDENCE  1636 

"It  was  not  banishment  but  enlargement." 

JOHN  COTTON  of  Roger  Williams. 

FROM  Prospect  Terrace,  almost  as  far  as  the  eye  can 
reach,  stretches  the  prosperous  manufacturing  city  of  Provi- 
dence, the  largest  city  of  the  smallest  State  of  the  Union, 
with  an  area  not  equal  to  that  of  the  county  of  Ayr,  in 
Scotland.  Turning  the  leaves  of  Providence's  "Long  Old 
Book"  with  parchment  cover,  and  the  early  records  of 
Rhode  Island,  you  are  convinced  that  you  have  entered  a 
territory  exceptional  in  interest ;  and  that  the  story  of  this 
tiny  commonwealth  is  a  theme  worthy  of  that  philosophical 
treatment  in  most  fascinating  guise  accorded  to  it  by  Mr. 
Richrnan,1  at  the  instance  of  his  friend  James  Bryce,  who 
found  it  deserving  of  special  study.  In  the  world's  smaller 
republics,  "the  play  of  personal  forces  is  best  seen,  and  the 
characters  of  individual  men  give  color  to  the  strife  of 
principles  and  parties"  ;  from  the  opening  of  Rhode  Island's 
drama,  by  Roger  Williams,  to  the  last  scene,  the  action  will 
be  influenced  by  his  major  "theme" — the  Rights  of  Man. 

Perhaps  that  is  the  reason  why  the  stranger,  on  entering 
Providence, — with  little  more  than  a  schoolboy  knowledge 
that  the  exile,  Roger  Williams,  was  the  good  angel  of  Rhode 
Island  and  Providence  Plantations, — reads  easily  the  story 
ot  Rhode  Island  in  a  most  amusing  and  interesting  way  on 
the  painted  sign-boards  of  squares  and  streets.  Even  a 
passing  baker's  wagon  cries  "  Whatcheer ! "  You  picture  the 
Indians  grouped  on  Slate  Rock  (now  buried  under  Roger 

1  Rhode  Island,  Its  Making  and  Meaning,  by  Irving  Berdine  Richman, 
with  Introduction  by  James  Bryce. 

455 


456  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

Williams  Square),  in  feathers  and  wampum,  hailing  some  for- 
eigners in  "  steeple  "  hats  paddling  down  the  Seekonk.      The 

white  men  answer  with  the  Saxon 
expression  of  good-will  and  turn 
around  Fox  Point  to  a  spring  on 
the  shore  of  the  Mooshassuc  with 
"Wha-cheer  Netop!"  ringing  in 
their  ears!  It  came  as  a  doubly 
pleasant  greeting  to  the  great,  ten- 
der-hearted pioneer  Williams  after 
being  twice  coldly  warned  off  Mas- 
sachusetts soil,  where  he  was 
greatly  beloved  in  spite  of  differ- 
ences. The  lovely  isles  Prudence 
and  Patience  could  speak  of  the 
warm  friend  ship  between  Governor 
Winthrop  and  Roger  Williams,  be- 
ing owned  by  them  in  common. 
Winthrop  privately  conveyed  a 
message  to  Williams  advising  him 
to  seek  a  land  below  the  Seekonk 
quite  outside  Plymouth's  Puri- 
tan palisades,  if  he  would  preach 
to  the  Indians  in  his  own  way. 
Angell  Street  tells  us  that  Thomas 
Angell  was  one  of  Roger  Will- 
iams's  companions  that  day  at  the 
spring. 

The  evolution  of  lovely  elm- 
arched  Benefit  Street  began  in  this 
wise ;  a  long,  narrow  slice  of  land 
was  assigned  to  each  of  the  early 
proprietors,  extending  from  river  to 
river,  besides  a  share  in  pasture 


PROVIDENCE 

LANDMARKS:  College  Hill.  Pros- 
pect Terrace,  Congdon  St.  Brown 
University  (1764);  University  Hall 
(1770)  on  "  home  lot  "  of  Chad 
Brown,  friend  of  Roger  Williams; 
occupied  for  barracks  and  hospital 
(1776-1782).  Rhode  Island  Hall 
contains  Jenks  Museum  of  Zoo'logy ; 
Herbarium  with  Olney,  Bailey,  and 
Stout  collections.  Sayles  Memorial 
Hall,  gift  of  the  Hon.  William  F. 
Sayles,  containing  portraits;  Man- 
ning Hall,  gift  of  the  Hon.  Nicholas 
Brown.  Rhode  Island  Historical 
Society  Building.  Ives  homestead, 
Powers  St.  (1799).  Moses  Ives 
house ;  given  by  Mrs.  Russell  for  the 
Episcopal  Residence  of  the  Bishop  of 
Rhode  Island.  Gammell  mansion 
(1786),  built  by  John  Brown,  hero 
of  Gaspee  affair,  Powers  St.  Ben- 
son-Watson house  (1782).  Grosvenor 
residence,  Prospect  and  Angell  Sts. 
Residence  of  Henry  A.  Church,  102 
Bowen  St. ;  fine  collection  of  colonial 
brass  lamps  and  blue  plates.  Halsey 
mansion  (1812),  Prospect  St. 
Jenckes-Pratt  house  (1790),  Jenckes 
and  Benefit  Sts. ;  Judge  Durf  ee  resi- 
dence. Peter  Church  house  (1778). 
President  Manning  house  (1770), 
College  and  Benefit  Sts.  First  Con- 
gregational Church  (Unitarian)  .Ben- 
efit and  Benevolent  Sts.  Tilling- 
hast  mansion  (1710),  299  South 
Main  St.  Old  Providence  Bank. 
Beneficent  Congregational  Church 
(1809),  standing  on  site  of  church  of 
1750;  called"  Round  Top  "from  the 
dome.  Cathedral  of  SS.  Peter  and 
Paul,  High  and  Fenner  Sts.  Deputy 
Governor  Elisha  Brown  house  ( 1 760) . 
The  Hope  Club.  Governor  Alexan- 
der Jones  house,  Duncan  residence. 
Edward  Carrington  homestead. 
Roger  Mowry-Samuel  Whipple-Ab- 
bort  house,  Abbott  St.  east  of  North 
Main  St. ;  Roger  Williams  and  com- 
panions said  to  have  held  religious 
meetings  here.  Statue  of  Mayor 


458  Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 


Doyle,  sculptor  Henry  H.  Kitson. 
Cyrus  Butler  house,  Smith  St.  Dun- 
can-Smith estate.  Providence  Public 
Library.  Admiral  Esek  Hopkins 
house,  North  Providence.  Hopkins 
Park.  Old  Red  Bridge.  Field's 
Point.  Crescent  Park,  Riverside. 
Squantum  Club  House,  Providence 
River.  Silver  Spring  Rocks.  Falls 
at  Hunt's  Mills,  East  Providence. 
Roger  Williams  Spring,  walled  up  in 
242  North  Main  St.  The  Arcade; 
pillars  suggest  Church  of  the  Made- 
leine, and  cut  by  hand  in  Bare  Rock 
Ledge  quarry,  Snake  Glen,  north  of 
Killingly  Road,  town  of  Johnston, 
near  North  Providence.  Roger 
Williams  Park,  the  Dyer  Memorial 
by  H.  H.  Kitson.  Stampede  Hill; 
tradition  that,  seeing  Indians  ap- 
proach, the  townspeople,  by  running 
and  stamping  made  it  appear  that  a 
large  force  was  stationed  at  the  fort 
on  the  hill  and  frightened  them  off. 


lands.  It  became  wearisome  to 
open  their  gates  daily  for  the  cows 
of  neighbor  A,  B,  and  C,  ambling 
to  the  western  pastures,  so  each 
contributed  a  strip  of  land  for  the 
common  benefit. 

Blackstone  Park  keeps  green  the 
memory  of  one  "neere"  to  Roger 
Williams  "though  far  from  his 
opinions,"  dwelling  at  Attle- 
borough  Gore  (now  Cumberland).1 
Providence  is  built  on  pictur- 
esque hills;  the  slope  of  Smith's 
Hill  is  adorned  by  her  fine  State 
House  and  the  State  Normal 
School ;  on  College  Hill  is  Brown  University,  and  the 
graceful  spire — after  Christopher  Wren — of  the  First  Bap- 
tist Church  accentuates  all.  Gaspee  Street  and  Rocham- 
beau  Avenue  both  speak  of  the  struggle  for  liberty.  The 
Gaspee  affair  accomplished  much  in  the  way  of  fanning 
the  flame  of  a  colonial  determination  to  brook  no  tyranny, 
either  from  a  royal  governor,  a  British  admiral,  or  a  tyrant 
king.  On  the  protestation  of  Providence  against  her  ves- 
sels being  obstructed,  and  farm  produce  appropriated  by 
the  Gaspee  under  Colonel  Duddingston,  the  British  Rear- 
Admiral  vowed  he  would  hang  all  meddlers  as  pirates,  even 
were  it  their  own  vessels  they  attempted  to  rescue.  On 
this  the  people  appealed  through  Deputy  Governor  Darius 
Sessions  and  Chief  Justice  Stephen  Hopkins  (later  one  of 
the  Signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence)  to  Samuel 
Adams,  who  answered  that  an  attack  upon  the  liberties  of 

1  At  Cumberland  is  the  famous  "Ballou  Meeting-house."  From  the 
"Ballou  neighborhood"  came  the  Rev.  Hosea  Ballou,  and  the  mother  of 
President  Garfield,  Eliza  A.  Ballou. 


The  Firing  of  the  Gaspee 


459 


one  colony  was  an  attack  upon  all.  The  Gaspee' s  last  excit- 
ing chase  ended  disastrously  for  her,  as,  drawing  more  water 
than  the  Providence, 
she  ran  aground  on 
Namquit  (Gaspee 
Point)  and  the  fol- 
lowing night,  pat- 
riots, led  by  John 
and  Joseph  Brown 
of  Providence,  and 
Simeon  Potter  of 
Bristol,  flung  the 
crew  on  shore  and 
set  her  on  fire.1 

T  r  a  n  sit  Street 
commemorates  the 
observation  of  the 
transit,  of  Venus, 
June  3,  1769,  by 
Joseph  Brown,  Dr. 
Benjamin  West, 
Governor  Hopkins, 

1  Fortunately  nothing  was  proven  against  these  daring  men  ;  large 
rewards  were  offered  in  vain,  even  to  the  amount  of  eleven  hundred 
pounds  sterling,  and  the  king  ordered  that  the  "authors  and  abettors" 
be  seized  and  delivered  to  Admiral  Montagu  and  brought  to  England 
for  "condign"  punishment.  To  send  an  American  across  the  Atlantic 
on  trial  for  his  life  was  an  intolerable  violation  of  justice.  The  peo- 
ple of  Rhode  Island  were  hot  with  indignation,  especially  as  Governor 
Hutchinson  had  urged  punishing  them  for  disloyalty  by  abrogating  their 
charter. 

The  parchment  commission  with  the  great  seal,  which  empowered  the 
judges  to  sit  on  the  case  of  the  Gaspee,  is  in  the  office  of  the  Secretary  of 
State  in  Providence.  It  is  framed  in  wood  from  the  Sabin  Inn, — the 
gathering  point  of  the  party  who  destroyed  the  Gaspee — and  wood  from 
the  old  Newport  Liberty  Tree.  The  miniature  schooner  adorning  the 
frame  was  made  from  Franklin's  printing-press. 


Benevolent  Street,  Providence. 


460   Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 


Dr.  Jabez  Bowen,1  and  Captain  John  Burrough.     The  tele- 
scope was  made  for  Mr.  Brown  in  London. 

The  Providence  Athenaeum,  a  most  attractive  building  in 
Greek  style,  is  an  outgrowth  of  the  Providence  Library 
Association  of  1754,  similar  to  a  library  begun  by  Benjamin 
Franklin,  he  having  suggested  that  the  Junto  Club  of  Phila- 
delphia2 bring  their  books  to  their  club's  rooms,  where  they 
might  be  enjoyed  by  all.  The  Athenaeum  possesses  a  Mai- 
bone  masterpiece,  The  Hours,  "a  picture  painted  by  a. 
young  man  named  Malbone  which  no  man  in  England  can 
excel,"  writes  West  to  President  Monroe.  The  picture  of 
these  three  fair  girls,  The  Past,  the  Present,  and  the  Coming 

Hour,  a  charming 
emblem  of  Time, 
manifests  Malbone's 
marvellous  power  of 
expressing  charac- 
ter and  grace,  and 
the  harmony  and 
delicacy  and  truth 
of  his  coloring. 
"Art  is  long  but 
time  is  fleeting." 
On  the  walls  are 
also  Girl  Reading, 
by  Joshua  Reynolds, 
portraits  of  John 
Hampden  and  Cyrus  Butler,  and  one  of  James  G.  Percival, 
by  Alexander. 

1  Governor  Bowen  was  a  member  of  the  Rhode  Island  Convention 
which  adopted  the  Constitution,  and  he  was  consulted  by  Generals  Spen- 
cer, Gates,  and  Sullivan  in  the  manoeuvres  of  the  Continental  army,  when 
the  British  were  possessed  of  a  large  part  of  Rhode  Island. 

2  The  Philadelphia  Library  Company  is  the  mother  of  all  North  Ameri- 
can circulating  libraries. 


Sullivan  Dorr  Mansion,  Dorr's  Lane,  on  Roger 

Williams'  Lot. 

Frescoed  to  the  ceiling  with  Italian  landscapes, 
1810,  by  Corne. 


Brown  University  in  1778 


461 


In  1778  Brown  University1  put  on  a  martial  appear- 
ance as  the  quarters  of  Rochambeau.  It  goes  without  say- 
ing that  the  path 
which  his  officers 
took  to  the  army's 
tents,  the  present 
Rochambeau  Ave- 
nue, was  to  them 
"Camp"  Lane  and 
the  camp-ground  is 
C  amp  Street. 
Nicholas  Brown 
and  his  three  broth- 
ers, John,  Joseph, 
and  Moses  2  owned 
a  large  part  of 
Providence  and  en- 
dowed the  city  liber- 
ally. Their  boyhood 
nicknames, "  Nickie, 
Joseph,  John,  and 
Mosie, "  or  "  Johnnie, 
Jo,  Nickie,  Mo,"  are 


The  Ives  Homestead  (1799).  Brown  and 

Powers  Streets. 
Residence  of  Mrs.  Henry  G.  Russell. 


often  quoted  be- 
cause of  their  absurd 
inappropriateness  to 

their  dignified  owners.     Other  famous  merchants  were  the 
Hopkins  brothers,  Samuel  Nightingale,  John  Updike,  and 

1  Among  the  graduates  of  Brown  University  are  three  Secretaries  of 
State  — Richard  Olney,  William  Learned  Marcy,  and  John  Hay,  whose 
class  poem  was  his  first  published  work.     Our  present  American  diplo- 
macy he  sums  up  in  an  epigram  thus:    "The  briefest  expression  of  our 
rule  of  conduct  is  the  Monroe  Doctrine  and  the  Golden  Rule.     With  this 
simple  chart  we  can  hardly  go  far  wrong." 

2  An  interesting  portrait  of  Moses  Brown  in  his  Quaker  dress  is  repro- 
duced in  The  Quaker  in  Costume.     He  founded  the  Friends'  School. 


462   Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  New  England 

the  Ives,  Goddards,  Hoppins,  Cyrus  Butler,  and  Richmond 
Bullock. 

The  first  rude  houses  of  logs,  or  merely  a  thatch  on  piles 
consisting  of  a  single  "  fire  room,"  clustered  about  the  spring 
where  St.  John's  Church  I  now  stands.  In  Grace  Church  is 
a  storied  chime  rung  on  national  holidays;  its  "Infantry" 
bell  was  presented  on  condition  that  it  be  rung  always  on 
September  tenth,  the  day  of  Perry's  victory  on  Lake  Erie. 

Roger  Williams  founded  the  First  Baptist  Church,  the 
oldest  in  America;  the  present  edifice  was  dedicated  in  1775. 
The  candles  of  the  crystal  chandeliers,  imported  in  1792, 
were  lighted  the  first  time  on  the  occasion  of  the  wedding  of 
Hope  Brown  and  Thomas  P.  Ives.  Pardon  Tillinghast  built 
the  first  little  church  at  his  own  expense.  One  pastor  with- 
drew because  music  introduced  into  the  service  was  "too 
disgustful  for  him."  Dr.  Stephen  Gano  (1792-1828)  was 
the  son  of  Gerneaux,  a  Huguenot  exile. 

The  traditional  hospitality  of  Providence  was  particularly 
in  evidence  in  post-Revolutionary  days.  Magnificence  was 
represented  by  the  balls  held  in  honor  of  Washington. 
Turtle  parties  were  a  unique  function,  which  opened  to  the 
foreign  guests  the  mysteries  of  a  new  department  in  gas- 
tronomy. "To  be  known  as  a  first-class  turtle  cook  satis- 
fied the  highest  ambition  of  a  chief  of  cuisine,"  writes 
Claude  Blanchard,  the  French  Commissary;  "it  was  a  sort 
of  picnic  given  by  a  score  of  men  to  a  company  of  ladies. 
The  purpose  of  the  party  was  to  eat  a  turtle  weighing  four 
hundred  pounds  which  an  American  vessel  has  just  brought 
home  from  one  of  our  islands,"  and  further,  "there  were 
some  quite  handsome  women,  and  they  danced  after  dinner 
to  the  music  of  Lauzun's  Legion." 

1  Until  the  Revolution  St.  John's  Church  was  King's  Chapel  and  under 
the  auspices  of  the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in  Foreign 
Parts. 


The  Pequot-path 


Providence  offers  a  thousand  delightful  opportunities  for 
exploration  in  summer,  over  old  paths  on  salt  water,  river, 
and  shore.  A  Rhode  Island  clam-bake  is  the  only  true 
clam -bake;  the  "real  Johnie-cake"  or  "journey"  cake, 
made  of  Rhode  Island  meal  ground  by  the  mills  on  Aquid- 
neck  Isle,  is  a  unique  breakfast  delicacy,  partaken  of  before 
a  sail  to  Bristol,  Narraganset  Pier,  or  Block  Island.  A  fas- 
cinating trail  is  the  Pequot-path  (or  Old  Post  Road  on 
which  are  the  homesteads  of  the  South  County  or  "  King's 
Province")  running  down  through  Pontiac,  Apponaug,  East 
Greenwich,  Tower  Hill,  then  curving  westward  skirting  the 
Atlantic  shore  through  Westerly,  Stonington,  and  New 
London. 


Roger  Williams  Park. 

The  house  of  Miss  Betsey  Williams  who  bequeathed  her  farm  to  Provi- 
dence on  condition  that  a  memorial  be  erected  to  her  ancestor.  Memorial 
statue  to  Roger  Williams  designed  by  Simmons. 


INDEX 


Abbot,  Captain  Henry,  193 

Abbot,  George,  186 

Abbot,  Samuel,  192 

Abbot,  Timothy,  188 

Abbot,  William,  196 

Abbot  house,  193 

Abbott,  Judge  J.  G.,  101 

Abbott  house,  456 

Abbott's  Tavern,  192 

Abington,  368,  369 

Achilles,  the,  189 

Acton,  Mass.,  66,  76 

Acushnet,  425,  426 

Adams,  Abigail,  47,  48,  318,  320- 

22,  343,  348 

Adams,  Captain  Abraham,  214 
Adams,  Charles  Pollen,  37 
Adams,  Charles  Francis,  Sr.,  32,  316 
Adams,  Charles  Francis,  316,  318 
Adams,  Professor  Henry,  318 
Adams,  John,  3,   18,    19,   26,   295, 

298,  318,  320,  348,  364,  379 
Adams,  Major  John,  187 
Adams,  John  Quincy,  301,  316,  321, 

322 
Adams  houses,  Quincy,   321,   348, 

354 

Adams  mansion,  320 
Adams,  Samuel,  i,   19,  54,  61,  62, 

458 

Adams,  Timothy,  house,  119 
Agassiz,  Louis  J.  R.,  36,  42,  51,  52, 

130 

Agassiz,  Mrs.  L.  J.  R.,  48,  324 
Agassiz  Museum,  42 
Alcott,  A.  Bronson,  36,  78,  80,  82 
Alcott,  Louisa,  34,  74,  80 
Alden,  John,  363,  366 
Alden,  Dr.,  place,  356 
Alden  Tavern,  295 
Aldrich,  Thomas  Bailey,  32,  34, 

265,  307 

Alexander  II.,  107 
Alexis,  Grand  Duke,  107 
Allen,  Governor  Charles  H.,  103 
Allen,  Welcome,  398 
Allerton,  Isaac,  366 


Alleyne,  Edward,  290 

Alliance,  the,  237 

Allston,  Washington,  36 

Ambrose,  the,  185 

America,  the,  185 

Ames,  Dr.  Azel,  387 

Ames,  Fisher,  6,  291,  295 

Ames,  Frederick  L.,  385,  387 

Ames,  John,  371,  387 

Ames,  Joseph,  151 

Ames,  Dr.  Nathaniel,  291,  294-96 

Ames,  Oakes,  385 

Ames,  Oakes  A.,  385 

Ames,  Oliver  (first),  387 

Ames,  Oliver,  385 

Ames,  Governor  Oliver,  385-87 

Ames  Tavern,  291 

Amesbury,  Mass.,  207,  237-40,  247 

Amory,  Francis,  301 

Amory,  Mrs.  James  S.,  25 

Amory,  Thomas,  6 

Anawan,  Chief,  403-05 

Ancient  and  Honorable  Artillery, 

292 

Andover,  Mass..  192-98 
Andrew,   Governor  John   A.,    103, 

340,  360 

Andrew  house,  161 
Andrews  house,  390 
Andros,   Sir  Edmund,   2,    17,    130, 

293-  383 

Angier,  Rev.  John,  371,  372 
Angier,  Rev.  Joseph,  300 
Angier,  Oakes,  372 
Annisquam,  Mass.,  182,  185 
Anthony,  Joseph,  429 
Appleton,  John,  151 
Appleton,  Nathan,  32,  104 
Appleton,  Samuel,  16 
Appleton,  Tom,  32 
Apponaug,  R.  I.,  463 
Apthorp,  Charles,  16 
Aquidneck  Isle,  430-38,  454 
Arbella,  Lady,  8,  12,  156 
Arbella,  the,  8,  12,  83 
Arlington,  Mass.,  54-60 
Arlington  Heights,  58,  60 
Arnold  Arboretum,  286,  287 
Arnold,  Benedict,  49,  230,  233 


465 


466 


Index 


Arnold,  Governor  Benedict,  440 

Arnold,  Benjamin  G.,  447 

Arnold,  James,  286 

Arnold  house,  421 

Arnold  Tavern,  350 

Aspinwall,  Captain  Thomas,  301 

Aspinwall,  William,  13,  430 

Assacumbuit,  Chief,  187 

Atkinson  house,  232 

Atlantic  cable,  184 

Attleborough,  Mass.,  398,  406 

Auburndale,  Mass.,  268 

Auchmuty,  Robert,  3,  18,  311,  450 

Austin  house,  50 

Auteuil,  92 

A  very,  General  Samuel,  143 

Ayer,  Frederick,  97 

Ayer,  J.  C.,  98 

Ayres,  Peter,  203 


B 


Babcpck  house,  301 

Bachiler,  Rev.  Stephen,  207,  246 

Back  Bay  Fens,  277 

Backus,  Elder,  412,  414 

Bacon  homestead,  70 

Bagley,  Captain  Valentine,  238 

Balch,  John,  170 

Baldwin,  Cyrus,  109 

Baldwin,  James,  93 

Baldwin,  Loammi,  92,  93 

Ball,  Thomas,  200 

Ballard,  Timothy,  193 

Ballardvale,  Mass.,  193 

Ballou,  Hosea,  458 

Bancroft,  George,  197,  436 

Bancroft  homestead,  113 

Barnard,  Rev.  John,  189,  190 

Barnard,  Parson,  153 

Barney,  Mason,  395 

Barrett,  Colonel  E.  S.,  322 

Barrett,  Colonel  James,  76,  77 

Bartlett,  George  B.,  74 

Bartlett,  John,  42 

Bartlett,  John  H.,  house,  222 

Bartlett,  Josiah,  237 

Bartlett,  Josiah,  house,  93 

Bartlett,  Samuel,  224 

Bartlett  house,  119 

Bartol,  Cyrus  A.,  32 

Barton,  Colonel  William,  432 

Bass,  Bishop,  228 

Basse,  Samuel,  353 

Bassett,  William,  37-r 


Batchelder,  Samuel,  47 

Bates,  Arlo,  37 

Battle,  Captain  Ebenezer,  297 

Bay-Path,  272,  275,  276 

Bay  View,  182,  183 

Bayard,  James  A.,  301 

Baylies,  Hodijah,  388 

Baylies,  Judge  William,  378 

Baylies  house,  382 

Beacon  Hill,  3,  5,  31,  32,  62 

Beal  house,  339 

Beale,  Eleazer,  356 

Beale,  Richard,  452 

Beard,  Thomas,  134 

Beaver  Brook  Reservation,  271 

Bedford,  69-73,  I9I 

Bedford  Springs,  73 

Beecher,  Henry  W.,  193 

Belcher,  Sir  Jonathan,  47,  304-06, 

368 

Belknap,  Jeremy,  38 
Bellevue  Hill,  288 
Bellingham,  Governor  Richard,  n 
Belmont,  August,  434 
Belmont,  Mass.,  271 
Benson,  Frank  W.,  164 
Benson  house,  456 
Bent,  Ann,  302-04 
Berkeley,  Dean,  383,  435~37.  452 
Bernard,  Governor  Francis,  280 
Berry  Tavern,  166 
Bertram,  Captain  John,  152 
Beverly,  Mass.,  170,  171,  216 
Bicknell,  Thomas  W  ,  408 
Bigelow,  Timothy,  87,  233 
Billerica,  Mass.,  14,  70,  95,  120-123, 

192 

Bingham,  William,  323 
Bishop  of  London,  224,  365 
Bissell,  Israel,  22,  276 
Black,  Jeremiah  S.,  238 
Black  Horse  Tavern,  56 
Blackstone  (Blaxton),  William,  8, 

316,  346,  401,  408 
Blanchard,  Thomas,  191 
Blaney  homestead,  140 
Bliss,  Cornelius  N.,  408 
Block,  Adrian,  382 
Block  Island,  180,  457,  463 
Blue  Hills,  12,  271,  289,  301,  312- 

3r4.  3I5>  356 
Blynman,  Pastor,  180 
Boar's  Head,  243-245 
Bon  Homme  Richard,  the,  237,  238 
Booth,  Edwin,  32,  385 


Index 


467 


Boott,  Kirk,  98 

Borden,  Richard,  429 

Borland,  Francis,  392 

Boston,  1-38,  207,  208,  210,  280, 
401;  Adams  house  (Sign  of  the 
White  Lamb),  18,  272;  Ames 
Building  (Dunster  estate) ,  21; 
Arlington  Street  Church,  38; 
Art  Club,  38;  Beacon  Hill,  5,  6; 
Bedford  Street  (Pond  Street  and 
Rowe's  Pasture),  310;  Boylston 
Street  (Frog  Lane),  24;  Brattle 
Street,  26,  48,  310;  Bunch  of 
Grapes  Tavern,  22,  23,  174; 
Christ  Church  ("Old  North"), 
29,  30;  City  Hall,  10,  27;  Com- 
mon, 5,  6,  8,  19,  32;  Congress 
Street  (Leverett's  Lane),  24; 
Copley  Square,  35,  37,  38;  Copp's 
Hill  Burying-Ground,  30;  Court 
Street  (Prison  Lane,  Queen 
Street),  17,  21,  24;  Devonshire 
Street  (Pudding  Lane),  24;  Essex 
Street  (Auchmuty's  Lane),  18; 
Exchange  Building  (Justice 
Dummer's  Corner),  20,  23;  Fan- 
euil  Hall,  19,  20,  24,  26;  Federal 
Street  Church,  38;  Fens,  the,  38, 
277;  First  Church,  2,  ii ;  Garden 
Court  Street,  30;  Governor  Win- 
throp's  "Green,"  19:  Granary 
Burying-Ground,  6;  Green 
Dragon  Tavern,  26;  Griffin's 
Wharf,  20,  424;  Hancock 
Tavern,  20;  Hanover  Street 
(Orange-Tree  Lane),  26;  Har- 
vard Bridge,  38,  39;  Hay- 
market  Square,  26;  Kilby 
Street  (Mackerel  Lane),  23; 
King's  Chapel  (Queen's  Chap- 
pell,  Stone  Chapel),  5,  8,  16,  17, 
18,  319;  Latin  School,  27; 
Liberty  Tree,  18;  Massachusetts 
Historical  Society,  38,  181;  Mu- 
seum of  Fine  Arts,  31,  38,  277; 
Neck,  22 ;  New  England  Historic 
Genealogical  Society,  31;  North 
End,  26-31;  North  Square,  28; 
Old  Corner  Bookstore,  34;  Old 
Cornhill  (Washington  Street) , 
24;  Old  Granary,  33,  312 ;  "Old 
North"  Church,  22,  29,  30;  Old 
South  Meeting-house,  5,  17,  19, 
365;  Old  State  House,  21,  23,  24, 
25;  Old  Suffolk  County  Court 


House,  8,  24;  Old  Tremont 
House,  36;  Park  Street  Church, 
29;  Parker  House,  35;  Prince 
Street  (Bell  Alley),  28;  Province 
House,  14,  36,  21 1 ;  Public 
Library,  2,  38,  366;  St.  Paul's, 
33;  Scollay  Square,  25;  State 
(King)  Street,  21-24;  Stone,  26; 
Summer  (Mylne)  Street,  36; 
Symphony  Hall,  38;  Trinity 
Church,  35,  38;  Washington 
Street  (Orange,  Newbury,  Marl- 
borough,  Old  Cornhill),  18,  24, 

3°3 

Bostoman  Society,  23,  25 
Botanical  Museum,  42 
Bourne's  Garrison,  398 
Bowden  house,  147 
Bowditch,  Nathaniel,  164 
Bowdoin,  Governor,  6,  27 
Bowen,  Dr.  Jabez,  460 
Bo  wen  house,  73 
Bowers,  Colonel  Jerathmel,  392 
Bowers  homestead,  109,  123 
Bowes,  Rev.  Nicholas,  73 
Bowling  Green,  N.  Y.,  22 
Bowman,  Samuel,  house,  55,  56 
Bowman,  Thaddeus,  61 
Boxford,  Mass.,  150,  209,  216 
Boylston,  Nicholas  W.,  298 
Brackenbury,  Richard,  170 
Bradford,  Mass.,  209 
Bradford,  Major  John,  365,  367 
Bradford,  Captain  Samuel,  418 
Bradford,  Governor  William,  315, 

346,  360,  365,  367 
Bradley,  Amos,  107 
Bradstreet,  Ann  D.,  156,  186,  187 
Bradstreet,    Governor    Simon,    40, 

150,  156,  186,  187 
Bragg  homestead,  392 
Braintree,  Mass.,  348,  352-354 
Brattle,  Thomas,  16 
Brattle  house,  47,  48 
Brattle  Street  Church,  48 
Bray  ton  Farm,  392 
Breck,  Samuel,  220,  323 
Breed,  Allen,  134 
Breed's  Hill,  44 
Bremer,  Frederika,  302 
Brenton,  Jahleel,  440,  452 
Brenton,    Governor   William,    398, 

439 

Brewer  estate,  340 
Brewer,  Stephen,  278 


468 


Index 


Brewster,  William,  366 
Bridge,  Edward,  278 
Bridge,  Parson,  119 
Bridges,  Moody,  187 
Bridge-water,  Mass.,  356,  370-375, 

411 

Briggs,  Edward,  429 
Brimmer,  Martin,  42 
Brinley,  Francis,  447 
Brinley,  Francis,  453 
Brinley,  Grissell,  113 
Brinley  homestead  (Robert),  113 
Brinley,  Robert,  98 
Brissot,  Jean  Pierre,  222 
Bristol,  R.  I.,  432,  459 
British  Coffee  House,  23 
British  Museum,  27,  438 
Brockton,  Mass.,  356,  377,  378 
Broglie,  Victor  F.,  Duke  de,  328 
Brook  Farm,  278,  284-286 
Brookhouse,  Robert,  153 
Brookline,  6,  267 
Brooklyn,  Conn.,  276 
Brooklyn  Heights,  224 
Brooks,  Governor  John,  86,  87,  89 
Brooks,  Peter  Chardon,  189 
Brooks,  Phillips,  38,  189,  421 
Brooks,  William  Gray,  189 
Brown,  Abbie  Farwell,  32 
Brown,  Abram  English,  72 
Brown,  Alice,  32 
Brown,  Governor  Elisha,  456 
Brown,  John  (-Magistrate),  396,  401 
Brown,  John,  456,  459,  461 
Brown,  Major  John,  396,  398 
Brown,  Joseph,  459,  461 
Brown,  Joshua,  224 
Brown,  Lemuel,  172 
Brown,  Moses,  227 
Brown,  Moses,  461 
Brown,  Nicholas,  134 
Brown  home  lot,  456 
Brown  house,  371 
Browne,  William,  166 
Bryant,  Gideon,  319 
Bryant,  Dr.  Philip,  homestead,  378 
Bryant,  William  Cullen,  378 
Bryce,  James,  455 
Buckman  Tavern,  61,  67 
Buffington  Farm,  392 
Bulkley,  Rev.  Edward,  66 
Bulkley,  Rev.  Peter,  66,  78 
Bull,  Governor  Henry,  440,  452 
Bull,  Ole,  194 
Bullard,  Captain  William,  296 


Bullock,  Richmond,  462 

Bunch  of  Grapes  Tavern,  23,  174 

Bunker  Hill,  22,  30,  31,  40,  44,  169, 

181,  191,  306 
Bunyan,  John,  78 
Buonaparte,  Jerome,  98 
Burbank,  Samuel,  house,  109 
Burgoyne,  General  John,  6,  44 
Burlington,  Mass.,  61 
Burr,  Aaron,  36,  233 
Burr,  Thaddeus,  house,  64 
Burrill,  Ebenezer,  139 
Burrough,  Captain  John,  460 
Burrows  estate,  282 
Bushee  homestead,  395 
Bussey,  Benjamin,  286,  287 
Butler,  General  B.  F.,  105,  151,  185 
Butler,  Cyrus,  458,  460 
Butler,  Peter,  316 
Butters  house,  85 
Butterworth,  Hezekiah,  40 
Buttrick,  Major,  76 
Buzzard's  Bay,  416-19 
Byfield,  Mass.,  210-14 
Byfield,  Judge  Nathaniel,  213 
Byfield,  Rev.  Richard,  213 
Bynner,  Edwin  L.,  n 


Cabot,  Andrew,  171 

Cabot,  George,  36,  170,  171 

Cabot,  J.  Eliot,  170 

Cabot,  John,  171 

Cabot,  Joseph,  154 

Cabot,  Dr.  Samuel,  314 

Calef,  Joseph,  301 

Calef,  Samuel,  311 

Callender,  Rev.  John,  453 

Cambridge,  Mass.,  8,  37,  39-53,  81, 

308 

Canobie  Lake,  200 
Canonicus,  410,  414,  430 
Canton,  Mass.,  313,  379 
Cape  Ann,  39,  175-83,  325 
Cape  Ann-side,  170-72,  175 
Cape  Breton,  180 
Cape  Cod,  54,  127,  180,  358,  360, 

370,  416-419 
Carleton,  Dudley,  209 
Carlisle,  Mass.,  73,  76 
Carlyle,  Thomas,  34,  42 
Carries,  Captain  Jonathan,  160 
Carr,  Governor  Caleb,  452 
Carr,  George,  224 


Index 


469 


Carrier,  Martha,  190 

Carrington  homestead,  456 

Carter,  Rev.  Thomas,  91 

Carter,  Tim,  house,  95 

Carvel,  Richard,  22 

Carver,  Governor,  363 

Carver  house,  371 

Gary,  Major  Eliphalet,  371 

Castle  William,  2,  3,  20 

Chace,  Oliver,  395 

Chadwick,  Colonel  Peter,  254 

Champlin,  Margaret,  444,  445 

Champlin  house,  440 

Chandler,  Rev.  James,  193 

Chandler,  Captain  Joshua,  193 

Chandler,  Rev.  Samuel,  193 

Channing,  W.  Ellery,  36,  70,  74,  80, 

428 
Channing,  Dr.  William  Ellery,  38, 

187,  304 

Channing  Memorial  Church,  440 
Chapman,  Maria  W.,  345,  350 
Charles  I.,  83,  312,  396 
Charles  II.,  2,  18,  352 
Charles  River,  38,  52,  267-71,  291 
Charleston,  453 

Charlestown,  13,  42,  54,  56,  321 
Charlton,  Emanuel,  184 
Chase  homestead,  392 
Chase  house,  395 
Chastellux,  Francois  J.,  Marquis  de, 

125,  444 

Chatham,  Lord,  27 
Chebacco,  175 
Cheever,  Ezekiel,  27 
Cheever  Farm,  98 
Chelmsford,  Mass.,  66,  98,  118,  119 
Chelsea,  125 
Chickatabut,  Chief,  12 
Chickering,  Francis,  292 
Chickering,  Jonas,  281 
Child,  Lemuel,  278 
Child,  Lydia  Maria,  85,  86 
Chipman,  Rev.  John,  171 
Choate,  Rufus,  151,  163 
Chubbock  house,  340 
Church,    Colonel    Benjamin,    328, 

339,  403,  406,  414,  428 
Church,  Dr.  Benjamin,  18,  46,  426 
Church,  Judge  Joseph  M.,  300 
Cincinnati,  Society  of  the,  256,  280 
Clap,  Captain  Roger,  290,  327 
Clap  house,  382 
Clark,  William,  28 
Clark  house,  Danvers,  166 


Clark  mansion,  30 

Clark  Tavern,  109 

Clarke,  Audley,  453 

Clarke,  Elizabeth,  66 

Clarke,  James  Freeman,  2,  387 

Clarke,  Rev.  Jonas,  61,  67,  68 

Clay,  Henry,  301 

Cleveland,  Grover,  165 

Cleveland  Homelands,  93 

Clifton,  Mass.,  141 

Clinton,  Sir  Henry,  6 

Clotilde,  Princess,  98 

Coburn,  General  Simeon,  105 

Coddington,  William,  6,   156,  353, 

43° 

Coffin,  Major,  181 
Coffin,  Tristram,  216 
Coffin  house,  230 
Coggeshall,  John,  430 
Coggin,  Rev.  Jacob,  95 
Cogswell,  Samuel,  197 
Cohasset,  331-37 
Cole,  J.  Foxcroft,  88 
Cole,  Samuel,  20 
Collins,  Henry,  453 
Conant,  Roger,  151,  155,  170,  171, 

180 
Concord,  Mass.,  19,  22,  37,  54,  66, 

74-82,  296,  344 

Concord  (Penacook),  N.  H.,  114 
Congdon,  Charles,  422 
Congdon  farm,  438 
Connecticut  Path,  Old,  274 
Constantine,  Grand  Duke,  107 
Constitution,  the  ("Old  Ironsides"), 

33,  181,  328,  329,  368 
Converse,  Edward,  13,  89 
Con  way,  Katherine  £.,37 
Cook,  Jacob,  403 
Coolidge,  Joseph,  6 
Coolidge,  T.  Jefferson,  42 
Coombs,  Joshua,  149 
Cooper,  Jonathan,  house,  50 
Cooper  Tavern,  56 
Copley,  John  Singleton,  31,  312 
Copp's  Hill,  24,  30,  31,  44 
Corbitant,  Chief,  388,  414 
Corliss,  George,  227 
Cory,  Thomas,  429 
Cotton,  John,  9,  10,  n,  17,  316 
Cotton,  Josiah,  25,  340 
Coubertin,  Pierre  de,  18 
Cradock,  Governor  Mathew,  83 
Cradock  house,  7,  8,  83,  86 
Craigie  house,  49 


470 


Index 


Crane,  Thomas,  316 

Cranfield,  Governor  Edward,  248 

Cromwell,  Oliver,  2,  19,  30,  78,  113, 

114,  281,  312,  420 
Grossman  Pines,  314 
Crowninsheldt,  Caspar,  Richter 

von,  134 

Crowninshield,  Benjamin  W.,  153 
Cumberland,  R.  I.,  406,  458 
Cummins,  Maria  T.,  164 
Cunningham,  Edward,  300 
Curzon  homestead,  218 
Curzon's  Mill,  218,  219 
Gushing,  Caleb,  198,  232 
Gushing,  Charles,  260 
Gushing,  Judge  John,  295,  340 
Gushing,  Matthew,  339 
Gushing,  Hon.  William,  262 
Gushing  homestead,  339 
Cutler,  Dr.  Manasseh,  173,  174 
Cutler,  Sheriff,  house,  278 
Cutler  house,  60 
Cuttyhunk  Isle,  419 

D 

Daland  house,  153 

Dalton,  Professor  John,  119 

Dalton,  Michael,  224 

Dalton,  Tristram,    219,    220,    225, 

233 

Dana,  Richard  H.,  32,  187 
Dana  mansion,  42 
Dane,  Deacon  John,  191 
Dane,  Nathan,  174 
Danforth,  Samuel,  382 
Danforth's  Plantation,  274 
Daniel,  Richard,  97 
Danvers,  Mass.,  14,  15,  57,  165-68, 

190 

Dartmouth,  Lord,  22 
Dartmouth,  Mass.,  420,  421 
Davenport's  Inn,  227 
Davis,  Admiral,  32 
Davis,  Captain  Cornelius,  392 
Davis,  General  Daniel,  32 
Davis,  Eleazer,  114 
Davis,  Captain  Isaac,  76 
Davis.  Governor  John  W.,  395 
Davis  homestead,  392 
Davis  houst,  119 
Dean,  Ensign  Thomas,  382 
Dearborn,  General  Henry,  233 
Deblois,  Gilbert,  312 
Decatur  house,  263 
Dedharn,  Mass.,  278,  290-297 


Deerfield,  Mass.,  171,  294 

Deland,  Margaret,  32 

Delano,  Anthony,  421 

Demerett,  John,  249 

Derby,  Elias  Hasket,  160,  169 

Derby,  Ezekiel  H.,  153 

Derby,  Richard,  153 

Dermer,  Captain  Thomas,  315,  412 

Des  Moines,  the,  325 

Devereux,  General  I.  H.,  148 

Devereux  mansion,  141 

Dexter,  Samuel,  6,  291,  295 

Dexter,  Thomas,  128 

Dexter,  Timothy,  227,  228 

Diaz,  Abby  Morton,  37 

Dickens,  Charles,  34,  35 

Dighton,  Mass.,  388-91 

Dighton  Rock,  349,  388 

Dimmock,  Dr.  William  R.,  318 

Ditson,  Thomas,  121 

Dix,  Dorothea,  42 

Dodge,  Colonel  Robert,  172 

Dole,  Nathan  Haskell,  87 

Dorchester,  Mass.,  13,  1 8,  42,   298 

300 

Dorr,  Judge,  218 
Dorr,  Sullivan,  460 
Doshisha  University,  193 
Doten  house,  360 
Doty's  Tavern,  379,  380 
Dover,  N.  H.,  12,  266 
Dow,  Joseph,  248 
Downing,  Emanuel,  150 
Downs,  Annie  S.,  191 
Dowse  house,  291 
Dracut,  Mass.,  105-08 
Drake,  Samuel  A.,  168,  376 
Drew,  Garrison,  266 
Drew,  Captain  Sylvanus,  418 
Drew,  Thomas  Bradford,  366 
Drowne,  Deacon  Shem,  25 
Dudley,  Governor  Thomas,  3,  9,  12, 

40,  70,  156,  198,  211,  212 
Dummer,  Richard,  211,  247 
Dummer,  Governor  William,  211, 

212,  366 
Dummer  mansion  (Academy),  210— 

12 

Duncan,  Major  James,  204 
Dunster,  Henry,  21 
Durkee  house,  98 
Duston,  Hannah,  114,  205 
Duxbury,  Mass.,  345,  357,  360,  371 
D  wight,  John,  292 
Dwight,  Timothy,  292 


Index 


E 


Eames,  Lieutenant  Anthony,  343 

Eames,  Deacon  Samuel,  93 

Eames,  Deacon  Thomas,  274 

Earle,  Major  R.  E.  W.,  151 

East  Cambridge,  47,  56 

East  Providence,  407,  409 

Easton  farm,  438 

Easton,  Jonathan,  453 

Easton,  Mass.,  385 

Easton,  Nicholas,  247 

Easton,  Governor  Nicholas,  452 

Eaton  house,  93 

Edgell,  Moses,  275 

Edson,  Samuel,  371,  372 

Edson,  Rev.  Theodore,  98,  100,  372 

Edwards,  Justin,  196 

Elam,  Samuel,  434 

Elderkin,  John,  292 

Eldridge  house,  25 

Eliot,  Charles  W.,  48 

Eliot,  Francis,  353 

Eliot,  John,  52,  97,  284,  288,  294 

Eliot,  Samuel  A.,  42 

Eliza,  the,  160 

Ellery,  William,  181,  440 

Ellery  house,  181 

Ellis,  John,  290 

Elwell,  Edwin  F.,  82 

Emerson,  Ralph  W.,  36,  64,  71,  75, 

78,  80,  81, 119,  359 
Emerson,  Rev.  William,  75,  76 
Emerson  house,  119 
Emery,  Sergeant  John,  218 
Emery,  S.  Hopkins,  383 
Endicott,  Mrs.  Anna,  169 
Endicott,  Governor  John,  2,  9,  n, 

25,  151,  155,  190,  316 
Endicott,  William  C.,  154,  165 
English,  Joe,  113 
Erikson,  Leif,  52,  126,  267,  381 
Essex,  Mass.,  175 
Estaing,  Charles  H.  T.,  Count  d', 

6,  326,  448 

Eustis,  Governor  William,  64 
Everard,  John,  290 
Everett,  Edward,  10,  88,  292 
Everett,  Dr.  William,  318 
Exeter,  252-56 


Fairbanks,  Jonathan,  297 
Fairbanks  house,  291,  293,  297 


Fairbanks  Park,  291 

Fairneld,  Conn.,  64 

Fairhaven,  Mass.,  426 

Falcon,  the,  181,  312 

Fall  River,  388,  392,  399 

Falmouth,  Mass.,  419,  424 

Faneuil,  Andrew,  16 

Faneuil  Hall,  19,  20,  24,  26 

Farnell,  Lieutenant,  115 

Farnell  house,  119 

Faulkner,  Dr.  George,  282 

Fay,  Judge,  48 

Fayerweather  house,  50 

Faxon,  Henry  H.,  316 

Fearing,  Major,  426 

Feke,  Robert,  211 

Fens,  the,  277 

Fersen,  Axel,  Count,  448 

Fields,  Annie,  32,  34,  53,  86 

Fields,  James  T.,  32,  34,  35,  243 

Finch  house,  440 

Fish  house,  194 

Fisher,  Daniel,  292,  293 

Fisher,  Captain  Joshua,  291 

Fiske,  John,  48,  80 

Fiske  house,  119 

Fitch  Tavern,  71 

Flag,  the,  1 6 

Fletcher,  Colonel  Josiah,  98 

Fletcher  Garrison,  123 

Flynt,  Henry,  324 

Flynt,  Rev.  James,  371 

Pollen  house,  64 

Folsom,  General,  254 

Forbes,  Mrs.  Dorothy,  306 

Forbes,  John,  371 

Forbes,  J.  Malcolm,  300,  304 

Forbes,  John  Murray,  298,  300,  304, 

4i7 

Forbes,  Captain  Robert,  300 
Fort  Constitution,  263 
Fort  Independence,  3 
Fort  William  and  Mary,  248,  254 
Fortune,  the,  371 
Foster,  General  Gideon,  168 
Foster,  Jedediah,  188 
Fowler,  Augustus,  165 
Fox,  George,  420 
Fox,  Hon.  G.  V.,  107 
Foye,  William,  300,  302 
Framingham,  274,  275 
Francis,  James  B.,  99 
Frankland,  Lady,  30,  280 
Frankland,  Sir  Charles   Henry.  30, 

85,  142,  143 


472 


Index 


Franklin,  Benjamin,  12,  27,  28,  320, 

459,  460 

Franklin  Park,  287,  288 
Freetown,  392 
French,  Daniel  Chester,  74 
French,  Rev.  Jonathan,  191,  193 
French,  Major  Luther,  356 
Frothingham,  Richard,  31 
Frye,  Colonel  James,  191 
Frye,    Lieutenant   Jonathan,    114, 

188 

Fryeburg,  Me.,  114 
Fuller,  Aaron,  292 
Fuller,  Margaret,  80 
Fuller,  Rev.  Samuel,  414 
Fulton,  Mrs.  Sarah  Bradlee,  85 


G 


Gage,  General  Thomas,  4,   14,  22, 

26,  30,  31,  84,  168,  320 
Gallatin,  Albert,  301 
Gammell  mansion,  456 
Gano,  Dr.  Stephen,  462 
Gardner,  Isabella  Stuart,  Museum, 

277 

Gardner,  Captain  Joseph,  150 
Gardner  homestead,  395 
Gardner  house,  25 
Gardner's  Neck,  388,  394,  398 
Garrison,  William  Lloyd,  227,  350 
Gay,  John,  290 
Gay  Head,  382 
Gaspee,  the,  450,  456,  458 
Gedney,  Benjamin,  170 
George  I.,  366 
George  II.,  30,  450 
George  III.,  16,  20,  22,  30,  58,  66, 

83,  291,  450 

Gerry,  Elbridge,  56,  143,  147 
Gibbons,  Daniel  L.,  301 
Giddinge,  Dr.  John,  254 
Gilman,  Arthur,  47 
Gilman,  Hon.  John  G. ,  256 
Gilman,  Colonel  Nicholas,  254 
Gilman,  General  Peter,  253 
Gilman,  Rev.  Samuel,  48 
Ginn,  Edward,  89 
Gloucester,  Mass.,  175-85,  224 
Glover,  General  John,  145,  433 
Glover,  Theodore  R.,  304  . 
Glover  house,  143 
Godfrey,  John,  382 
Golden  Parrot,  the,  113 
Goldsmith  farm,  97 


Gooch,  Joseph,  300,  311 

Goodhue,  Senator  Benjamin,  150 

Goodwin,  John  A.,  103,  362 

Gookin,  General,  97 

Gordon,  Captain  Timothy,  382 

Gordon,  Rev.  William,  283 

Gore,  Governor  Christopher,  6,  68 

Gore,  Samuel,  147 

Gore  Library  (Cambridge),  42 

Gorges,  Sir  Ferdinando,  263,  315, 
344 

Gorges,  Sir  Robert,  344,  346 

Gosnold,  Bartholomew,  416,  419 

Goss,  Elbridge  H.,  20 

Grant,  Robert,  37 

Grant,  Sueton,  437,  440 

Grant,  General  Ulysses  S.,  5,  98 

Gray,  Harrison,  36 

Gray,  William,  153 

Great  Bay,  266 

Green,  Gardiner,  25 

Green  Dragon  Tavern,  19,  20,  26,  27 

Greenacre  School,  263 

Greene,  Lieutenant-Colonel  Chris- 
topher, 233,  433 

Greene.  General  Nathanael,  46,  283, 
429,  432,  433 

Greenhalge,  Governor  Frederick 
T.,  103 

Greenland,  N.  H.,  256 

Greenleaf,  Benjamin,  209 

Greenleaf,  Judge  Benjamin,  212, 
213 

Greenleaf,  General  William,  318 

Greenleaf  house,  86 

Greenough,  Thomas,  283 

Griffin,  Rev.  Dr.,  196 

Griffin's  Wharf  (Boston),  20,  424 

Groveland,  Mass.,  216 

Guerrikre,  the,  328 

Guild,  Samuel,  292 

Guiney,  Louise  I.,  37,  120 

Gurnev  house,  412 


II 


Hackett,  Captain  William,  317 
Hackett,  Colonel,  254 
Hadley,  Judge  Samuel,  109 
Hale,  Edward  Everett,  4,  36,  52, 

65 

Hale,  Rev.  John,  171 
Hale,  Martha,  254 
Hale,  Nathan,  400 
Hale,  Sir  Thomas,  Jr.,  218 


Index 


473 


Hale  house,  214 
Hall,  Commodore  James,  353 
Hall,  Captain  Joseph,  382 
Hallowell,  Captain  Benjamin,  278 
Halsey,  R.  T.  H.,  6 
Halsey  mansion,  456 
Hamilton,  Gail,  193 
Hamilton,  Mass.,  171 
Hamlin,  Dr.  Cyrus,  193 
Hampton,  N.  H.,  243-52 
Hampton  Beach,  244-46 
Hampton  River,  243,  244 
Hancock,  Governor  John,  3,  8,  18, 

19,  23,  26,  27,  54,  61,  62,  65,  283, 

316,  318,  326,  348,  379 
Hancock,  Rev.  John,  65,  66 
Hancock,  Mme.  Lydia,  64 
Hancock,  Thomas,  65 
Hancock  house,  65 
Hancock  mansion,  6,  64 
Hancock  Tavern  (Brasier's  Inn),  20 
Hardy,  Alpheus,  193 
Hardy,  Professor  Arthur  S.,  194 
Harlow  house,  360 
Harrington,  Jonathan,  house,  64,  67 
Harris,  Arthur,  371 
Harris,  Dr.  William  F.,  78 
Harris  estate,  278 
Hart,  Albert  Bushnell,  37 
Hart  Farm,  390 
Hartford,  Conn.,  272,  294 
Harvard,  John,  40,  51 
Harvard  Bridge,  38,  39 
Harvard  College,  3,  8,  40,  41,  82 ^ 

372,  374 

Harvard  Observatory,  50 
Harvard  Union,  42 
Hatch,  Colonel  Henry,  278 
Hathaway  house,  390,  421 
Hathorne,  William,  151 
Hathorne  house,  134 
Haven,  Judge,  291 
Haverhill,  Mass.,  192,  197,  201-09, 

2IO,    2l6 

Hawthorne,  Nathaniel,  14,  24,  34, 

74,  75-  ?8,  152.  163,  164 
Hay,  John,  384,  461 
Hayward,  Dr.  Lemuel,  283 
Hazard,  Caroline,  37 
Hazard,  Daniel,  house,  440 
Hazard,  Rowland  R.,  440,  451 
Hazard,  "Shepherd  Tom,"  435 
Heath,  General  William,  58,  446 
Hemenway,  Augustus,  313 
Hemlock,  George,  273,  274 


Hemlock  Hill,  287 

Henchman,  Captain,  398 

Henchman,  Major,  98 

Henry,  Judge  John  I.,  233 

Henry,  Patrick,  22 

Henry,  Prince  of  Russia,  42 

Hentz,  Caroline  Lee,  135 

Herford,  Brooke,  38 

Herkomer,  Hubert,  199 

Hersey,  Christopher,  247 

Hibbins,  Anne,  24 

Higginson,  Francis,  9,  87,  155,  157, 

166, 179 

Higginson,  Colonel  Henry  L.,  42 
Higginson,  Rev.  John,  157 
Hildreth,  Squire  Israel,  106 
Hildreth,  Lieutenant  Micah,  106 
Hildreth,  General  William,  106 
Hill,  Don  Gleason,  292 
Hilliard,  George,  34 
Hilton,  Martha,  260 
Hinds,  Elder  Ebenezer,  414 
Hingham,  Mass.,  338-43 
Hitchcock,  Rev.  Calvin,  354 
Hoar,  Judge  E.  R.,  324 
Hoar,  George  F.,  174,  324 
Hoar,  Joanna,  324,  325 
Hoar,  Samuel,  78,  82 
Hobart,  Colonel  Aaron,  369 
Hobart,  Rev.  Nehemiah,  332,  337 
Holbrook,  Dr.  Amos,  302 
Holbrook  house,  353 
Holland,  18 

Hollingsworth ,  Amor  L.,  314 
Holman,  John,  305 
Holmes,  Oliver  Wendell,  16,  32,  34, 

35.  36,  38-  44,  45-  i°7.  ^r.  i&7> 

193,  194,  207,  249,  400,  416 
Holt,  Captain  Joshua, 
Holten,  Judge,  167 
Holyoke,  Edward,  134 
Holyoke,  Dr.  Edward  A.,  150 
Holyoke,  Edward  H.,  28 
Honyman,  Rev.  James,  437 
Hood  house,  392 
Hooker,  Rev.  Thomas,  40,  42 
Hooper,  Robert,  145,  147,  168 
Hooper,  Stephen,  218 
Hopkins,  Admiral  Esek,  458 
Hopkins,   Stephen,   362,   377,   382, 

412 

Hopkins,  Judge  Stephen,  458 
Hopkinton,  Mass.,  30 
Horsford,  Professor  Eben  Norton, 

270 


474 


Index 


Hosraer,  Edmund,  80,  81 
Hottinguer,  Baron,  438 
Hough,  Atherton,  316,  353 
Houghton's  Pond,  312 
Hovey  homestead,  107 
Howard,  Judge  Daniel,  372 
Howard,  Major  N.,  homestead,  109 
Howard  house,  356 
Howe,  Edward,  134 
Howe,  Julia  Ward,  36 
Howe,  Earl  Richard,  326,  448 
Howe,  Sir  William,  23,  42,  44 
Howells,  William  D.,  34,  53 
Howland,  Daniel,  429 
Howland,  Henry,  371 
Howland,  Lieutenant  Jabez,  403 
Howland,  John,  358,  360,  366,  396 
Hubbard,  J.  M.,  188 
Hubbard,  Tuthill,  280 
Hubbard,  William,  9 
Hubbard  house,  82 
Hull,  Mass.,  44,  127,  326-28 
Hull,  Captain  Isaac,  181,  328,  329 
Hull,  John,  352 
Humphrey,  William,  139 
Hunnewell  estate,  274,  286 
Hunt,  Benjamin  P.,  119 
Hunt,  Captain  Enoch,  406 
Hunt,  Richard  M.,  42 
Hunt,  Captain  Thomas,  449 
Hunt,  William  Morris,  416 
Hunt's  Mills,  409,  458 
Hunter  House,  440 
Huntington,  Jacob  R.,  240 
Hutchins,  John,  204 
Hutchinson,   Anne,    40,    211,    253, 

317..  43o 
Hutchinson,  Governor  Thomas,  2, 

14,  20,  23,  30,  61,  298-301,  459 
Hutchinson  mansion  (Boston),  30, 

280 


Iceland,  53,  126 
Ilsley  house,  230 
Inches  house,  301 
Indian  Hill  Farm,  220-22 
Ingalls,  Mary,  235 
Ingersoll  house,  152,  165 
Inman  farm,  306,  308,  309 
Inman,  Mrs.  Ralph,  306-10 
Institute  of  Technology,  35,  38 
Ipswich     (Agawam),     Mass.,     184, 

2OI,    215,    2l6 


Ireson,  Flood,  143 
Ives,  Moses,  456 
Ives,  Thomas  P.,  462 


Jackson,  Andrew,  98,  147,  194,  287 

Jackson,  Lidian,  359 

Jackson,  Patrick,  104 

Jackson,  Patrick  Tracy,  400 

Jamaica  Plain,  277-87 

James,  Henry,  42 

James,  Isabella,  47 

James  house,  332 

Jayne,  Peter,  143 

Jaynith  homestead,  123 

Jenckes  house,  456 

Jenks,  Professor  W.  P.,  412 

Jewel,  the,  12,  83 

Johnson,  Captain  Edward,  91 

Johnson,  Isaac,  8,  156 

Johnson,  Jonathan,  130 

Johnson,  Penelope,  187 

Johnson,  Timothy,  189 

Johnston,  Robert,  438 

Jones,  Governor  Alexander,  456 

Jones,  Paul,  237,  238 

Joppa  Flats,  228,  229,  231 


K 


Keith,  Rev.  James,  371,  373,  375, 

3.85 

Keith  house,  385 
Kentucky,  6 
Kertland,  Philip,  133 
Kertland,  Rev.  Samuel,  135 
Keyes,  Judge,  82 
Kidd,  Captain,  24 
Kidder,  Henry  P.,  301 
Kidder  Place,  85 
Kimball,  Thomas,  209 
King,  David,  453 
King,  Rufus,  400 
King's  Beach,  139 
King's  Chapel,  5,  8,  16,  17,  18,  319 
Kingston,  Mass.,  365-67 
Kinnicutt,  Thomas,  408 
Kirkland,  John  T.,  135 
Kittery,  Me.,  263,  264 
Kittredge,  Dr.  Thomas,  187 
Kittredge  homestead,  95 
Kittredge  mansion,  189,  190 
Kneeland,  Squire,  193 
Knox,  General  Henry,  280 


Index 


475 


Kossuth,  Louis,  98 
Kyoto,  193 


Ladd  house,  265 

Lady  Frankland,  30,  143 

La  Farge,  John,  199 

Lafayette,  Marquis  de,  3,  4,  6,  18, 

19,  28,  64,  152,  237,  433,  444,  446 
Lakeville,  Mass.,  412-15 
Lameth,   Chevalier  Alexandre   de, 

328 

Lancaster,  Mass.,  294,  318 
Lane,  Captain  John,  73 
Lanesville,  Mass.,  184 
Langdon,  Governor  John,  248,  257 
Langdon  mansion,  257 
Langdon,  Mary,  44 
Larcom,  Lucy,  97,  99,  171,  172 
Laud,  Archbishop,  10 
Laurel  Hill,  222 
Laurens,  Henry,  22 
Lawrence,  Mass.,  105,  198 
Lawrence,  Bishop,  house,  50 
Lawrence,  General,  86,  87 
Lawrence,  Samuel,  105 
Lawton,  Polly,  434,  453 
Lazell,  General  Sylvanus,  373 
Lazell  house,  371 
Leach,  Lawrence,  151 
Lear,  Tobias,  265 
Learned,  Colonel  Ebenezer,  23 
Leavitt  Tavern,  252 
Le  Baron,  Francis,  341,  360,  418 
Lechmere,  Nicholas,  452 
Lechmere  house,  44,  50 
Lechmere  Point,  47,  56 
Lee,  General  Charles,  44,  47,  84 
Lee,  Colonel  Jeremiah,  56,  147,  225 
Lee,  Judge,  house,  50 
Lee,  Samuel,  77 
Lee  mansion,  143 
Leonard,  James,  376,  384,  420 
Leonard,  Lewis  A.,  384 
Leonard,  Solomon,  371 
Leonard  homestead,  371 
Lesley,  Susan  I.,  303 
Leslie,  Colonel,  3,  147 
Leverett,  Thomas,  24 
Lewis,  Alonzo,  134 
Lexington,   i,  22,   54,  61-68,   181, 

192,  296 

Liberty  Tree  (Dorchester),  18,  379 
Lilley  house,  93 


Lincoln,  Mass.,  79 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  98,  322,  334,  336 

Lincoln,  General  Benjamin,  341 

Lincoln,  Countess  of,  9,  12 

Lincoln,  Daniel,  332 

Lincoln,  Mordecai,  332,  336 

Lincoln,  Thomas,  340,  341 

Linzee,  Captain  John,  181,  312 

Lisle,  Lady  Alice,  325 

Little,  William,  230 

Little  Boar's  Head,  259 

Little  Compton,  426,  428,  432,  434 

Littlefield,  Edward  B.,  433 

Livermore,  Judge  St.  Loe,  101 

Locke,  Captain,  56 

Locke  house,  58 

Lodge,  Henry  Cabot,  18,  32,  130 

Londonderry,  N.  H.,  108 

Long,  John  D.,  338,  412 

Longfellow,  Henry,  32,  36,  41,  50, 

53,  58,  130,  132,  244 
Longfellow,  William,  213 
Longfellow  house,  49 
Long  Wharf,  Boston,  25 
Loomis,  Elihu  G.,  70 
Loring,  Rev.  Bailey,  187 
Loring,  Caleb,  house,  25 
Loring,  Eliphalet,  339 
Loring,  George  B.,  400 
Loring,  Commodore  Joshua,  282 
Loring  house,  326 
Lothrop,  Captain,  170 
Louder  homestead,  278 
Louis  Phillipe,  20,  263 
Louisburg,  25,  232 
Lovejoy,  Captain  Nathaniel,  191 
Lovell,  General,  345 
Lovell,  Master,  27 
Love  well,  Captain,  114 
Low,  Abiel  Abbot,  151 
Lowell,  Mass.,  83,  97—105 
Lowell,  Francis  Cabot,  99 
Lowell,  James  Russell,  35,  36,  49, 

50,  52,  80,  271,  400 
Lowell,  John,  16 
Lowle,  John,  230 
Lowle,  Percival,  230 
Ludlow,  Roger,  13 
Luscomb  house,  382 
Lusher,  Major  Eleasher,  292 
Luther  house,  390 
Luzerne.  Anne  Cesar  de  la,  444 
Lyman,  Major,  446 
Lynde,  Chief  Justice,  3,  157 
Lyndhurst,  Lord,  438 


476 


Index 


Lynn,  Mass.,  13,  129,  133-38 
Lynn  Woods,  136,  137 
Lyon,  Mary,  214 

M 

Mackenzie,  Alexander,  66 

Macy,  Goodman,  238,  422 

Madison,  James,  301 

Magnolia,  Mass.,  176 

Magoun,  Thatcher,  86 

Malbone,  Edward  G.,  32,  445,  446 

Malbone,  Godfrey,  436,  447,  460 

Maiden,  13,  42,  89 

Manly,  Captain,  146 

Mann,  Horace,  292 

Manning,  Eliphalet,  95 

Manning  homestead,  122 

Manning  house,  282 

Manomet,  360,  418 

Marblehead,    Mass.,    14,    22,    141, 

142-49,  224 
March  house,  230 
Marchant,  Henry,  453 
Marcy,  William  L.,  461 
Marie  Antoinette,  27,  448 
Marietta,  Ohio,  173 
Marland,  Abraham,  house,  193 
Marlborough,  Mass.,  274,  275 
Marshall,  Thomas,  125 
Martha's  Vineyard,  426,  446 
Martin,  Susannah,  166,  232 
Mary  and  John,  the,  290,  327 
Mason,  Mrs.  A.  L.,  437 
Mason,  George  Champlin,  444 
Mason,  Captain  John,  246,  259 
Mason  house,  395 
Massachusetts  D.  A.  R.,  341 
Massachusetts    Historical    Society, 

38 

Massachusetts,  the,  25 
Massassoit,  315,  345,  362,  370,  374, 

388,  396,  401,  410,  412 
Mather,  Rev.  Cotton,  190,  205 
Mather,  Rev.  Richard,  9,  28,  31 
Mather,  Rev.  Samuel,  28,  30 
Mattapoiset,  419,  424 
May,  Samuel,  25 
May  homestead,  281,  282 
Mayflower,  the,   12,    358-60,    368, 

420 
Mayflower  Descendants,  Society  of, 

366 

McKinstrey  house,  382 
Mead,  Edwin  D.,  4 


Medford,  Mass.,  8,  13,  22,  54,  56, 

83-88,  129 

Meigs,  Major  Return  Jonathan,  233 
Melrose,  Mass.,  189 
Merrimac,  Mass.,  237 
Metcalf,  Michael,  292 
Methuen,  Lord  Paul,  198 
Meyers,  William,  438 
Middleborough,  Mass.,  356,  362 
Middlesex  Canal,  93,  109,  120 
Middlesex  Fells,  85,  124 
Middlesex  Village  (Lowell),  108-09 
Middletown,  R.  I.,  434-37 
Mifflin,  Major,  47,  48 
Miller,  General  James,  153 
Millet,  Dr.  Asa,  371 
Millet,  Thomas,  367 
Milton,  Mass.,  298-314 
Minot  house,  353 
Minot  Light,  132,  331,  336,  337 
Mitchell,  Experience,  371 
Mitchell,  Judge  Nahum,  373 
Mitchell,  Sylvanus,  371 
Mohawk  tribe,  97 
Molly  Varnum  Chapter,  D.  A.  R., 

119 

Monadnoc,  103,  289 
Monroe,  James,  147,  152,  460 
Moodie,  Lady  Deborah,  139 
Moody,  Horace  J.,  220 
Moody,  Master,  212 
Moody,  Paul,  99,  213 
Moody,  Parson,  13 
Moody,  William,  213 
Morgan,  Captain  Daniel,  42,  233 
Morris,  Robert,  323 
Morris,  William,  237 
Morse,  Professor  S.  B.,  193 
Morse,  Samuel,  290 
Morton,  Eliza  Susan  (Mrs.  Quincy), 

323 

Morton,  Governor  Marcus,  197 
Morton,  Tom,  227,  316 
Moseley,  Edward  S.,  218 
Moseley,  Frederick  S.,  224 
Moseley,  Captain  Samuel,  398 
Motley,  John  Lothrop,  32 
Motley,  Thomas,  287,  292 
Moulton,  General,  house,  251,  252 
Mount  Auburn,  51,  82 
Mount  Holyoke  College,  214 
Mount  Hope,  395,  396,  403 
Mount  Hope  Bay,   390,   392,   394, 

43° 
Mudge  estate,  139 


Index 


477 


Mugford  house,  139 
Muirhead,  James  F.,  28 
Mumford  house,  440 
Munroe,  James  P.,  66 
Munroe,  Robert,  64,  66 
Munroe,  William,  82 
Munroe  Tavern,  64,  65,  68 
Murray,  James,  302,  303,  306—10 
Myles,  Pastor  John,  395 
Myles's  Garrison,  395,  396,  398 


X 


Nahant,  126-32 

Namasket  tribe,  382,  412,  413 

Nantasket  (Nantasco)  i,  327-30 

Nantucket,  238,  422—24 

Napoleon  III.,  42 

Narraganset  trail,  272,  357 

Narraganset  tribe,  452 

Nashua,  N.  H.,  114,  117 

Nason,  Rev.  Elias,  123 

Natick,  Mass.,  274,  294 

Naushon  Island,  416 

Neal,  David,  104 

Neale,  Henry,  353 

Needham,  William,  353 

Neesima,  Joseph  H.,  193 

Nevins,  Henry  C.,  199 

New  Bedford,  410,  420,  427 

New  Boston,  113 

New  England  Historic  Genealogi- 
cal Society,  31,  218 

New  London,  463 

New  York  (Manhattan),  396,  418, 
440 

Newburyport,  210,  214,  224-230, 
244 

Newcastle,  263,  264 

Newell,  Harriet,  214 

Newman,  Rev.  Samuel,  346,  401 

Newport,  113,  430,  434~54 

Newport    Historical    Rooms,    440, 

453 

Newton,  Mass.,  68,  267,  268,  290 
Newton,  N.  H.,  243 
Newton  Upper  Falls,  274 
Nichols,  Israel,  331 
Nichols,  Governor  Jonathan,  449 
Nichols  homestead,  165,  440 
Nichols  house,  93 
Nickerson  estate,  292 
Nicoll,  John,  452 
Niehaus,  Charles  Henry,  384 
Nightingale,  Samuel,  461 


Niles,  Rev.  Samuel,  353 
Nippenicket  Lake,  370,  374,  411 
Noailles,  Adrienne  de,  444 
Noailles,    Louis    M.,    Viscount    de, 

442,  444 
Norfolk,  Va.,  45 
Norris,  Edward,  157 
Norris,  John,  187 

North  Andover,  Mass.,  186-91,  216 
North  Easton,  385 
North  End  (Boston),  26-31 
North  Lexington,  64 
North  Reading,  197 
North  Tewksbury,  105 
North  Woburn,  Mass.,  92—94 
Northend,  William  D.,  164 
Norton,  Charles  Eliot,  42,  50 
Norumbega  Park,  268 
Norumbega  Tower,  267,  270,  271 
Nourse,  Elizabeth,  166 
Nowell,  Increase,  13 
Noyes,  John,  house,  214 
Noyes,  Joseph,  211 
Noyes,  Nicholas,  230 
Nurse,  Rebecca,  166,  275 


O 


Oakes,  Rev.  Urian,  372 

Ochre  Point,  436,  439,  453 

Odiorne's  Point,  12,  259 

Ogden,  Matthew,  233 

Ogden  farm,  436 

Old  Arcade  Tavern,  272 

Old  Colony,  357,  358 

Old  Colony  Historical  Society,  383 

Old  Manse,  75 

Old  North  Bridge  (Concord),  74 

Oldtown  (Newbury),  225,  230-33 

Oliver,  Governor  Thomas,  49,  86 

Olney,  Richard,  461 


Packard,  Rev.  Hezekiah,  119 

Padanaram,  Mass.,  426 

Page,  Captain  Cyrus,  69 

Page,  Ensign,  69 

Page,  Colonel  Jeremiah,  168 

Page,  John,  292 

Page,  Walter  Gilman,  84 

Page  homestead,  69,  70 

Paine,  Robert  Treat,  3,  212 

Palfrey,  Peter,  170 

Palfrey,  Colonel  William,  46 


Index 


Palmer,  General  Joseph,  320 

Palmer  house,  392 

Park,  Professor  Edwards  A.,  193 

Parker,  Captain  John,  61,  64 

Parker,  Theodore,  36,  38,  197 

Parkman,  Francis,  32,  281 

Parsons,  Eben,  214 

Parsons,  Theophilus,  212,  213,  214 

Passaconaway,  Chief,  12,  97 

Patuxet  tribe,  315 

Paugus,  Chief,  115 

Pawtucket  tribe,  98 

Peabody,  Mass.,  168,  169 

Peabody,  Andrew  P.,  36,  42 

Peabody,  Elizabeth,  6,  80,  123 

Peabody,  Colonel  Francis,  150 

Peabody,  George,  150,  169 

Peabody,  Josephine  P.,  37 

Peabody,  Oliver,  288 

Peabody,  Oliver  W.,  300 

Peabody,  Sophia,  34 

Peabody  house,  188 

Peabody  Museum,  42 

Peacock  Inn,  278,  279 

Pearl  homestead,  217 

Pearson,  Benjamin,  house,  214 

Pearson,  Captain  Richard,  238 

Pease,  Captain  Levi,  272,  323 

Pease  Tavern,  272 

Peck  house,  395 

Pedrick,  Major  John,  143,  147 

Pelham,  Herbert,  n 

Pelham,  Penelope,  n 

Pemberton,  Benjamin,  283,  284 

Penacook  tribe,  114,  201 

Penniman,  Deacon,  348 

Pepperell,  Sir  William,  27,  230,  263, 

264 

Pequot-path,  463 
Percival,  James  G.,  460 
Percy,  Hugh,  Earl,  57,  64,  65,  67, 

438 

Perham  house,  119 
Perkins,  Charles  E.,  300 
Perkins,  Captain  Josiah,  143 
Perkins,  Thomas  Handasyd,  36 
Perkins  mansion,  280 
Perry,  Bliss,  37 
Perry,  Ezra,  407 
Perry,  Oliver  Hazard,  440,  462 
Peters,  Hugh,  157 
Phelps,  Austin,  196 
Phelps,  William  P.,  103 
Philadelphia,  28,  48,  453,  460 
Philbrick,  Thomas,  248 


Philip,  King,  201,  294,  370,  374- 
76-  392.  395-99.  402-05,  408, 
410,  412,  414 

Phillips,  Rev.  George,  13,  157,  192 
Phillips,  Judge,  189,  192,  193 
Phillips,  Moses  Dresser,  36 
Phillips,  Phoebe  Foxcroft,  192,  193 
Phillips,  Rev.  Samuel,  189,  193 
Phillips,  Wendell,  32,  130,  187,  193, 

301-  35° 

Phillips  Andover  Academy,  193,194 
Phillips  Exeter  Academy,  254 
Phillips  Manse,  189 
Pickering,    Colonel   Timothy,    153, 

163,  248 

Pickman,  Colonel  Benjamin,  160 
Pickman,  Dudley  Leavitt,  70 
Pierce,  Governor  Benjamin,  119 
Pierce,  Esek  H.,  408 
Pierce  house,  230 
Pigeon  Cove,  Mass.,  183,  184 
Plymouth,    12,   39,    197,   315,   344, 

357-68.  388,  396,  399,  405 
Plymouth  Path,  272,  288,  298,  338, 

354,  366 

Plymouth  Rock,  357,  359,  360,  367 
Plympton,  362 
Pocasset  tribe,  399 
Point,   The    (Newport),    439,   440, 

442,  444,  447,  449 
Point  Judith,  352,  448,  457 
Point  Shirley,  14 

Pokanoket  tribe,  374,  402,  412,  428 
Pollard,  Asa,  122 
Pool,  Elizabeth,  376,  382 
Poole  house,  89 
Poor,  Abraham,  188 
Poor,  Daniel,  193 
Poor,  Thomas,  190 
Poore,  Major  Ben  Perley,  220-22 
Poquanum  ("Black  Will"),  128 
Porter,  Eliphalet,  288 
Porter,  General  Moses,  168 
Porter  house,  54,  87 
Portsmouth,  N.  H.,    12,   248,    253, 

259-65 

Portsmouth,  R.  I.,  430-33 
Potter,  Simeon,  459 
Pratt,  Aaron,  332 
Pratt,  Judge  Benjamin,  332 
Pratt,  F.  Alcott,  82 
Pratt,  Phinehas,  332,  345,  346 
Pratt  home  lot,  412 
Pratt  house,  125 
Prentice,  Captain,  398 


Index 


479 


Prentiss,  George,  57 

Prescott,    General    Richard,    432, 

440,  446 

Prescott,  Dr.  Samuel,  61,  76 
Prescott,  Colonel  William,  31,  122, 

181 
Prescott,  William  H.,  32,  130,  164, 

181 

Preston,  Captain,  3 
Pride,  Peter,  171 
Prince,  Captain  John,  281 
Prince  Dolgorouky,  107 
Prince  Galitzine,  107 
Prince  Gortchakoff,  107 
Prince  house,  166 
Prince  John,  36 
Prince  of  Orange,  129 
Pring,  Martin,  265 
Pritchett,  Henry  S.,  38 
Prospect  Hill  Park,  271 
Providence,  R.  I.,  18,  275,  399,  404, 

408,  409,  445,  455-63 
Providence  Athenaeum,  460 
Province  House,  14,  211 
Punchard,  Benjamin,  193 
Putnam,  Judge  A.  A.,  165 
Putnam,  Dr.  A.  P.,  165 
Putnam,  Deacon  Edmund,  165 
Putnam,  Colonel  Enoch,  168 
Putnam,  General  Israel,  22,  31,  44, 

167,  276 

Putnam,  Colonel  Jesse,  166 
Putnam,  General  Rufus,  173 
Pynchon,  William,  288,  294 


Q 


Queen  Anne,  228 

Queen  Victoria,  169 

Quincy,  Mass.,  315-325 

Quincy,  Dorothy  ("Dorothy  Q."), 

64,  317,  324 
Quincy,    Dorothy    (Hancock),    68, 

3.17 

Quincy,  Edmund,  291 
Quincy  Edmund  (immigrant),  316, 
_  3.17.  352,  353 

Quincy,  Colonel  Edmund,  317,  322 
Quincy,  Squire  Edmund,  317 
Quincy,  Josiah,  3,  32,  322,  384 
Quincy,  Josiah  ("President"),  306, 

322.  323 

Buincy,  Josiah  P.,  318 
uincy  mansion  (Boston) ,  6 


Quincy    mansions    (Quincy),    317, 

318,  320,  322,  324 
Quincy  Mansion  School,  318 


R 


Radcliffe  College,  48,  324 

Raleigh,  Sir  Walter,  344,  357 

Randolph,  Edmund,  17,  129 

Randolph,  Mass.,  354-56 

Randolph,  Peyton,  354 

Rantoul,  Robert  S.,  151,  171 

Rawson,  Edward,  218 

Rea,  Daniel,  165 

Read  house,  301 

Reading,  Mass.,  66,  89,  197 

Readville,  Mass.,  313 

Redwood  Library,  211,  438,  453 

Reed  homestead,  345 

Reed  Tavern,  70 

Rehoboth  (Secunke),  Mass.,  358 

397,  401-09 
Reid,  Robert,  23 
Revere,  Paul,  19,  22,  60,  62,  67.  85, 

171,  248,  326,  369 
Revere  Beach,  124 
Reynolds,  Rev.  Grindall,  76 
Rhodes,  Joseph  H.,  37 
Rice,  Henry,  274 
Rice  house,  274 
Richardson,  William  A.,  113 
Richardson  farm,  119 
Richardson  house,  107 
Richman,  Irving  Berdine,  455 
Richmond,  Va.,  22,  453 
Ricketson,  Walton,  428 
Ricketson  home  lot,  424 
Riedesel,  Baroness,  44 
Rindge,  Frederick  H.,  42 
Ripley,  Dr.  Ezra,  75 
Ripley,  George,  36 
Roach  house,  421 
Roads,  Samuel,  Jr.,  145 
Robbins,    Anne    Jean    (Mrs.    Ly- 

man),  302,  338 
Robbins,    Governor    Edward    H., 

300,  302 

Robbins,  Elizabeth  O.,  104 
Robbins,  Lieutenant,  114 
Robbins  mansion,  59 
Robinson,  Captain  Andrew,  176 
Robinson  homestead,  440,  442 
Rochambeau,  Comte  de,  440,  445, 

448,  452,  461 
Rochefoucauld,  Mme.  de  la,  28 


480 


Index 


Rockingham,  Lord,  258 

Rockport,  Mass.,  182,  184 

Rocks  Bridge,  202,  236 

Rocks  Village,  235,  237 

Rodman  homestead,  421 

Rogers,  Ezekiel,  210 

Rogers,  Henry  H.,  421 

Rogers,  John,  292 

Rogers,  Colonel  John,  254 

Rogers,  Rev.  Nathaniel,  215 

Rogers  farm,  123 

Rolfe,  Henry,  202 

Roosevelt,  Theodore,  98,  213,  329 

Rosengarten,  Joseph  G.,  442 

Rotch,  Arthur,  288 

Rowe,  John,  280,  310-12,  314 

Rowley,  Mass.,  210,  211 

Roxbury,  Mass.,  13,  288 

Royall,  Colonel  Isaac,  85,  283 

Roy  all  house,  47,  84 

Rumford,  Count,  92,  93 

Russell,  Charles,  421 

Russell,  Colonel  H.  S.,  301 

Russell,  Jason,  57 

Russell,  Jonathan,  301 

Russell,  Joseph,  424 

Russell,  Ralph,  420 

Russell,  Thomas,  280 

Russell  farm,  188 

Rutland,  Mass.,  173,  174 

Rye,  N.  H.,  259 


Safford  Judge  D.  E.,  172 

Sagamore,  James,  12 

Sagamore,  John,  12,  83 

St.  Botolph's  Church,  10 

St.  George's  Chapel,  Windsor,  385 

St.  John's,  Richmond,  22 

St.  Mark's  School,  275 

St.  Michael's,  Marblehead,  23 

St.  Paul's,  Boston,  33,  272 

St.  Paul's  School,  Concord,  N.  H., 

192 

St.  Petersburg,  107 
Salem,  Mass.,  8,  150-64,  197 
Salem,  N.  H.,  201 
Salisbury,  Mass.,  242 
Salisbury  Beach,  234,  235,  242,  244 
Saltonstall,  Governor  Gurdon,  203 
Saltonstall,  Dr.  Nathaniel,  204 
Saltonstall,    Judge    Richard,    203, 

295 
Saltonstall,  Sir  Richard,  13, 156, 203 


Sanborn,  Frank  B.,  76,  82 

Sargent,  Professor  Charles  S.,  286 

Sargent,  Manlius,  278 

Savage,  Major,  398 

Savage,  Rev.  Minot  J.,  123 

Savannah,  Ga.,  22,  453 

Savil  house,  316 

Savin,  William,  280 

Sayles,  William  F.,  456 

Sayre,  Job,  135 

Schiff,  Jacob  H.,  42 

Scituate,  Mass.,  337,  339,  357 

Scott,  Edward,  437 

Scudder,  Horace  E.,  52 

Seabrook,  N.  H.,  244,  247,  248 

Seabury,  Rt.  Rev.  Samuel,  452 

Searles  estate,  199,  200 

Sears,  David,  18 

Sears,  Colonel  Isaac,  283 

Sears  estate,  25 

Seaver,  Major  William,  382 

Secomb  house,  86 

Seekonk,  Mass.,  398,  401,  406,  408, 

4i3 
Segur,  Louis  Philippe,  Comte,  434, 

445. 

Semetic  Museum,  42 
Serapis,  the,  238 
Sessions,  Governor  Darius,  458 
Sewall,  Judge  Samuel,  5,  6,  17,  47, 

210,  213,  218,  316,  320,  352,  365 
Sewall,  Judge  Stephen,  295 
Sewall,  William,  354 
Shannon,  the,  159 
Sharpe,  Thomas,  156 
Shaw,  Abraham,  292 
Shaw,  Chief-Justice,  151 
Shaw,  Rev.  John,  371 
Shays'  Rebellion,  107 
Sheafe,  Jacob,  260,  265 
Sheafe,  Henry,  262 
vSheafe  house,  262 
Shelter  Island,  N.  Y.,  113 
Shepard,  Rev.  Thomas,  40,  42 
Shirley,  Governor  William,  14,  16, 

17,  21,  25,  288 
Shove,  George,  382 
Shrewsbury,  Mass.,  272,  275 
Shuttleworth,  Jeremiah,  291 
Sidney,  Sir  Philip,  34 
Silsbee,  Edward  A.,  27 
Silsbee,  M.  C.  D.,  164 
Slade,  Elisha,  392 
Slade,  Elder  Philip,  395 
Slade's  Ferry,  388,  399 


Index 


481 


Sleepy  Hollow  (Concord),  78 
Slocurn,  Peleg,  420 
Smith,  James,  310-12 
Smith,  Judge  Jeremiah,  254 
Smith,  Captain  John,  39,  180,  234, 

244,  263,  298,  315,  332,  357 
Smith,  Samuel  A.,  56 
Smith,  Samuel  F.,  196 
Snorre,  417 
Somerset  (Shewamet),  Mass.,  349, 

388,  392,  394 
Somerset,  the,  54,  122 
Southborough,  Mass.,  275 
Southwick,  Mrs.  Bethia,  169 
Southwick,  Lawrence,  158 
Southvnrt,  Constant,  371 
Southvkjrth,  Nathaniel,  403 
Spalding,  Joel,  homestead,  98 
Spalding  house,  119 
Sparhawk  house,  263 
Sparks,  Jared,  42 
Spaulding,  Rev.  Samson,  95 
Spencer  house,  230 
Spofford,  Harriet  Prescott,  31,  158, 

238,  240 

Spring,  Rev.  Samuel,  233 
Springfield,  Mass.,  272,  276 
Sproat,  Colonel  Ebenezer,  415 
Sproat  Tavern,  412 
Squantum,  315,  316 
Standish,  Myles,  180,  277,  315,  316, 

345.  346,  360,  362,  366,  371,  382 
Staples,  Rev.  Carlton,  65 
State  House,  Boston,  i,  4,  6,  8 
Staver's  Inn,  265 
Stearns,  Squire,  house,  72 
Stearns,  Rev.  Samuel,  72,  191 
Stearns  house,  123 
Stetson,  Caleb,  353 
Stevens,  Frank  S.,  395,  399 
Stevens,  General  Isaac,  187 
Stevens,  Moses  T.,  186 
Stiles,  Rev.  Ezra,  450 
Stoddard,  Colonel  Samson,  119 
Stoneham,  Mass.,  89 
Stony  Brook  Woods,  289 
Storer,  Dr.  Horatio  R.,  440 
Storrs,  Dr.  Richard  S.,  353 
Story,  Dr.  Elisha,  143,  147 
Story,  William  W.,  42,  400 
Stoughton,  Israel,  298 
Stoughton.  Mass.,  379 
Street,  Rev.  Nicholas,  382 
Strong,  Caleb,  219 
Strong,  Dr.  Jonathan,  354 


Stuart,    Gilbert,   31,   32,  304,  440, 

453 

Sullivan,  Governor  James,  323 
Sullivan,  General  John,  83,  84,  248, 

254,  433.  448,  460 
Sumner,  Charles,  32,  34 
Sumner,  General  William  H.,  278 
Surriage,  Agnes,  30,  143 
Sutton,  Eben  Dale,  169 
Sutton,  Richard,  186 
Swampscott,  Mass.,  139,  140 
Swan,  Joshua,  98 
Swan,  Samuel,  87 
Swansea,  388,  392,  394-400 
Sylvester,  Nathaniel,  113 
Symmes,  Rev.  William,  187 


Taft,  Rev.  Moses,  354 

Talbot,  the,  12 

Talbot,  Governor  Thomas,  123 

Talbot  house,  390 

Talleyrand- Perigord,  Prince  de,  20, 

323 

Taratine  tribe,  129 
Taunton,  Mass.,  380-85,  404,  405 
Tayloe,  Colonel,  301 
Taylor,  Bayard,  243 
Taylor,  Henry  A.  C.,  434 
Taylor,  Robert,  436 
Tenney  house,  214 
Tewksbury,  Mass.,  95-96 
Thacher,  Rev.  Peter,  314 
Thanet,  Octave,  197 
Thayer  Academy,  353 
Thayer,  Colonel  Ebenezer,  301 
Thayer,  John  Eliot,  170 
Thayer,  Richard,  353 
Thayer,  General  Sylvanus,  353 
Thaxter,  Celia,  215,  243,  244 
Thaxter,  Major  Samuel,  341 
Thompson,  Benjamin,  92,  151 
Thompson,  Daniel,  91 
Thompson  house,  93 
Thoreau,  Henry,  70,  74,  80,  81,  82, 

108,  114 
Thorfinn,  52 
Thorlay,  Richard,  214 
Thornton,  Sir  Edward,  222 
Thorwald,  Viking,  127,  268 
Thorwaldsen ,  417 
Ticknor,  George,  6 
Ticknor,  William  D.,  278 
Ticonderoga,  22,  76 


482 


Index 


Tidd,  William,  93 

Tillinghast,  Pardon,  462 

Tillinghast  mansion,  456 

Tilney,  Dame  Margaret,  10 

Tilton,  John,  140 

Tiverton,  R.  I.,  427-30 

Toppan,  Dr.  Christopher,  232 

Toppan, Jacob,  219 

Toppan  house,  232 

Tower,  Bethiah,  334 

Tower,  Ibrook,  332 

Tower,  Captain  Nicholas,  337 

Tower,  Colonel  W.  A.,  64 

Tracy,  John,  227 

Tracy,  Nathaniel,  225,  233 

Train  house,  87 

Trenton,  battle  of,  93,  146 

Trescott  house,  382 

Trinity  Church,  Boston,  35 

Trinity  Church,  Newport,  383 

Trowbridge,  J.  T.,  58 

Trumbull,  Colonel  John,  3,  25 

Tucker,  Commodore,  146 

Tucker,  Major  Elisha,  412 

Tucker,  George  Fox,  421 

Tucker,  Robert,  301 

Tucker  homestead,  421 

Tucker  house,  143 

Tufts  College,  83 

Turner,  Ross,  159 

Twain,  Mark,  193 

Twentieth  Century  Club,  4 

Two  Palaverers  Tavern,  26 

Tyler,  Abraham,  204 

Tyler.  Jonathan,  homestead,  102 

Tyler,  President,  98 

Tyler,  Nathan,  98 

Tyler,  William  Royal,  318 

Tyng,  Dudley  Atkins,  113 

Tyng,  Judge  John,  113 

Tyng,  Colonel  Jonathan,  98,   in, 

"3 

Tyngsborough,  111-13 
Tyng's  Island,  102,  in 

U 

Updike,  John,  461 
Usher,    Lieutenant-Governor,     47, 
292 

V 

Van  Zandt,  Governor,  440 
Vanderbilt  Arch,  449 


Vanderbilt  farm,  434,  437 
Varnum,   General  James  M.,    106, 

433 

Varnum,  General  Joseph  B.,   105, 

106 

Vassall,  Henry,  house,  46 
Vassall,  Colonel  John,  mansion,  42, 

46,  49 

Vassall,  Leonard,  316,  320 
Vassall,  Penelope  Royall,  47 
Vassall,  William,  16,  156 
Vaucluse,  434-36 
Vaughan  house,  451 
Verazzano,  Giovanni  de,  438 
Vernon,  Thomas,  452 
Vernon,  William,  452,  453 
Vernon  house,  440,  452 
Very,  Rev.  Jones,  164 
Viomenil,  Antoine   C.,    Baron    de, 

328-  445 

Von  Eelking,  Captain  Max,  442 
Vose,  Daniel,  300,  301 
Vose,  Elijah,  301 
Vose,  Colonel  Joseph,  302 

W 

Wade  house,  86 

Wadsworth,  Benjamin,  42,  301 

Wadsworth,    Captain    Samuel, 

house,  301 

Wainwright,  Captain  Simon,  203 
Wait  house,  85 
Wakefield,  Mass.,  89,  197 
Waldo  farm,  197 
Waldron,  Lady  Wentworth,  261 
Wallis  Sands,  259 
Walter,  Rev.  Nathaniel,  283 
Waltham,  Mass.,  68,  271 
Walton,  Parson  William,  144 
Wamesit,  Mass.,  97,  114,  201 
Wampanoag  tribe,  362,  377,  412 
Wannalancet,  Chief,  97,  113 
Wanton,  Governor  Gideon,  446 
Wanton,  Colonel  Joseph,  Jr.,  449 
Wanton,  Governor  Joseph,  450 
Wanton,  Rev.  Joseph,  211 
Wanton  house,  440 
Ward,  General,  Artemas,  44,  275, 

276 

Ward,  Mrs.  E.  S.  Phelps,  184 
Ward,  Rev.  John,  201,  204 
Ward,  Joshua,  152 
Ward,  Rev.  Nathaniel,  201 
Warden,  David  B.,  42 


Index 


483 


Ware,  Charles  Eliot,  42 

Ware,  Rev.  Henry,  Jr.,  304 

Ware,  Mrs.  Mary  L.,  304 

Ware,  Rev.  William,  282 

Warren  (Sowams),  R.  I.,  377,  388, 

4i3 

Warren,  James,  360,  364-,  453 
Warren,  Dr.  John  C.,  281,  288 
Warren,  Dr.  Joseph,  18,  22,  23,  26, 

27,  54,  58,  288,  301 
Warwick,  R.  I.,  430,  432 
Washburn,  Cyrus,  371 
Washburn,  John,  371 
Washburn,  Nelson,  house,  413,  414 
Washburn,  Philander,  412 
Washington  Elm,  42,  48 
Washington,  George,  3,  6,   16,  23, 

26,87,93,  I°5.  I07.  X47.  i5°»  I52, 

I7O,    192,   200,   222,   233,   247,   262, 
263,   265,   279,   280,  300,  308,  320, 

322,  432,  438,  445,  448,  453,  462 
Washington,  Martha,  324 
Waters,  Henry  Fitzhugh,  164 
Watertown,  Mass.,  13,  46,  68,  271, 

274,  290 

Watson,  B.  M.,  362 
Watson,  Jonathan,  87 
Watson,  Mrs.  Mary  Devereux,  148 
Watson,  Thomas  A.,  353 
Waverly,  Mass.,  271 
Wayland,  Mass.,  274 
Wayne,  General  Anthony,  445 
Weare,  Governor  Mesech,  248 
Weaver,  Benjamin,  392 
Webb  house,  345 
Webber,  Wallace  G.,  72 
Webber  house,  69,  214 
Webster,  Daniel,  36,  104,  163,  248, 

254,  3°4,  33°.  332.  342 
Weetamoe,  Queen,  339,  428 
Weld,  Dr.  Elias,  235 
Weld,  Captain  William  G.,  278 
Wellesley,  Mass.,  268 
Wellesley  College,  274 
Wellington,  Benjamin,  64 
Wellington,  Dr.  James  L.,  400 
Wendell,  Barrett,  263 
Wendell,  John,  317 
Wenham,  Mass.,  174 
Wentworth,     Governor     Benning, 

259-61 
Wentworth,   Governor  John,    253, 

258 

Wentworth  mansion,  259-61 
West,  Benjamin,  408,  459 


West  Newbury,  216-21 

West  Roxbury,  Mass.,  281,  284,  289 

West  Roxbury  Tavern,  280 

Westerly,  R.  I.,  463 

Weston  Bridge,  268 

Weston  house,  345 

West  wood  Park,  297 

Weymouth  (Wessagusset) ,  12,  344- 

5i.  353 

Wheatland,  Dr.  Henry,  151 
Wheaton,  Rev.  Josephus,  408 
Wheelwright,  Rev.  John,  211,  253, 

316 

Whipple,  Samuel,  456 
Whistler,  James  McNeil,  103 
Whitcomb,  Harriet  M.,  282 
White,  Eliza  Orne,  37 
White,  Rev.  John,  9,  155 
White,  Nahum,  353 
White,  Peregrine,  368 
White,  Captain  Samuel,  345 
White,  Squire  Samuel,  204 
White,  William,  203 
Whitefield,  George,  227,  304 
Whiting,  General  Henry,  135 
Whiting,  Nathaniel,  292 
Whiting,  Captain  Phineas,  98 
Whiting,  Rev.  Samuel,  134 
Whiting,  Samuel,  Jr.,  123 
Whitman,  Mass.,  367-69 
Whitman,  Deacon  John,  371 
Whitman,  Mrs.  Sarah  W.,  16,  32, 

42,  104 

Whitney,  Mrs.  A.  D.  T.,  300,  301 
Whitney,  Amos,  109 
Whitney,  Anne,  280 
Whitney,  Eli,  433 
Whitney,  Dr.  Elisha,  172 
Whitridge  farm,  434 
Whittemore,  Amos,  56 
Whittemore,  Samuel,  56,  60 
Whittemore,  Squire  William,  59 
Whittemore  house,  54 
Whittier,  John  G.,  86,  105,  166,  167, 

207,  208,  209,  222,  234,  235,  244, 

249-5 * 

Whittier,  Thomas,  201,  202 
Wigglesworth,    Michael,    192,    232, 

239 

Wigglesworth,  Samuel,  172 
Wight  home  lot,  292 
Wifbor,  Shadrach,  383 
Wilbur  farm,  392 
Wilder  house,  341 
Wilkins,  Mary  E.  (Freeman),  356 


484 


Index 


Willard,  Solomon,  419 
Willet,  Captain  Thomas,  396 
Williams,  Richard,  382,  388 
Williams,  Roger,  157,  360,  401,  409, 

455-58,  462,  463 

Wilson,  Rev.  John,  316,  317,  353 
Wilson,  Captain  Jonathan,  71 
Winchester,  Captain  Artemus,  278 
Winchester,  Mass.,  88,  89 
Winn,  Jonathan,  72 
Winn  house,  93 
Winnipiseogee,  Lake,  205 
Winslow,  Dr.  Ebenezer,  400 
Winslow,    Governor    Edward,    88, 
197,  340,  345,  362, 366, 377, 381, 
382,  388,  396,  401,  412,  414,  428 
Winslow,  Rev.  Edward,  311 
Winslow,  Dr.  John,  395,  400 
Winslow  house,  359 
Winsor,  Justin,  44 
Winthrop,  Fitz-John,'203 
Winthrop,   Governor  John,   9,    n, 
13,  17,  19,  24,  28,  40,  70,  83,  85, 
155,  156,  170,  288,  326,  339,  456 
Winthrop,  John,  Jr.,  215,  352,  382, 
384 


Winthrop,  Mass.,  14,  125 
Winthrop  house,  125 
Withington  house,  86,  371 
Woburn,  Mass.,  13,  66,  68,  69,  90, 

91.  I97 

Wolcott,  J.  Huntington,  314 
Wolcott,  Governor  Roger,  314,  365 
Wolcott  Pines,  313,  314 
Wollaston,  Mount,  40,  316,  352 
Wollaston  Heights,  317 
Wood,  William,  9 
Woodbridge,  Benjamin,  n 
Woodbury,  John,  151,  170 
Woodcock's  Garrison,  397,  398 
Woodward's  Tavern,  291 
Worcester,  Mass.,  22,  272,  275,  276 
Worcester  "Pike,"  272,  273 
Wordsworth,  34 
Worthen,  Ezra,  98 
Wesson,  Peg,  180 
Wright  Tavern,  82 


York,  Me.,  263,  344 
Yorktown,  106 


By  Katharine  M.  Abbott 

Old  Paths  and  Legends  of 
New  England 

Saunterings  over  Historic  Roads  with  Glimpses  of 

Picturesque  Fields  and  Old  Homesteads  in 

Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island,  and 

New  Hampshire. 


Old  Paths  and  Legends  of  the 
New  England  Border 

Connecticut — Deerfield — Berkshire 

Two    volumes.     8vo,  each  containing  about  175 

Illustrations  and  a  map 

Two  volumes  in  a  box,  $7.00,  net,  or  boxed  separately, 
each,  $3.50,  net 

"  At  home  on  every  inch  of  New  England  ground,  familiar 
with  all  the  legends  clustering  about  its  historic  places,  Miss 
Abbott  has  written  a  sort  of  glorified  guide-book,  in  which 
pictures  largely  replace  dry  descriptive  detail,  while  the  spirit 
of  each  scene  is  caught  by  some  bit  of  vivid  remembrance,  some 
anecdote  that  imparts  a  living  interest.  Every  step  is  enlivened 
by  pleasant  chat.  Indeed,  Miss  Abbott  is  one  of  the  most 
entertaining  of  cicerones  as  well  as  one  of  the  best  informed. 
Whether  one  be  intent  upon  taking  trips  from  Boston  to  points 
of  interest  in  Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island,  and  New  Hamp- 
shire, or  prefer  the  less  costly  and  more  comfortable  equivalent 
of  fireside  travels,  her  book  is  just  the  thing.  It  is  beauti- 
fully made  and  lavishly  illustrated  with  pictures  of  scenes  in 
the  places  visited." — Pittsburg  Gazette, 

Illustrated  Descriptive  Circular  Sent  on  Request. 

G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons 

New  York  London 


The  Connecticut    River 

and  the   Valley  of  the  Connecticut  :   : 

Three  Hundred  and  Fifty  Miles 
from  Mountain  to  Sea    : 

By  EDWIN  MUNROE  BACON 

Author  of  "  Historical  Pilgrimages  in  New  England  " 
"  Literary  Pilgrimages  in  New  England,"  etc. 

8°.     Fully  Illustrated.      Net,  $3.50 
By  express,  prepaid,  $3.73 


THE  Connecticut  River  may  perhaps  with  more 
propriety  than  any  other  in  the  world  be 
named  the  Beautiful  River.  From  Stuart 
to  the  Sound  it  uniformly  maintains  this  character. 
The  purity,  salubrity,  and  sweetness  of  its  waters; 
the  frequency  and  elegance  of  its  meanders;  its  ab- 
solute freedom  from  all  aquatic  vegetables ;  the  un- 
common and  universal  beauty  of  its  banks,  here  a 
smooth  and  winding  beach,  there  covered  with  rich 
verdure,  now  fringed  with  bushes,  now  covered  with 
lofty  trees,  and  now  formed  by  the  intruding  hill,  the 
rude  bluff,  and  the  shaggy  mountain, — are  objects 
which  no  traveller  can  thoroughly  describe,  and  no 
reader  can  adequately  imagine. 


G.  P.   PUTNAM'S   SONS 

New  York  London 


VUA 


A     000  721  606     2 


